The Citadel: Concordance - 1. Ancient History (pre-Targaryen)

1. Ancient History (pre-Targaryen)

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 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)

Last revised January 31, 2007
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1.1. The Freehold of Valyria

It is held that the ironsmiths worked with spells as well as hammer (I: 20)
Valyria suffered a Doom (I: 20)
The writing of Valyria was in glyphs (I: 27)
Depictions of the Doom of Valyria exist (I: 29)
Ayrmidon's Engines of War is quite rare, and written on scrolls (I: 72)
The Free Cities speak a bastard version of Valyrian, as most have their origins as colonies of Valyria (I: 84. SSM: 1)
The Valyrians carved sphinxes with garnet eyes and black faces (I: 161)
Valyria left many roads, as old as a thousand years, that run straight as arrows on the eastern continent. These roads show no sign of wear or tear despite their age. Made of magically fused stone and raised half a foot off the ground to allow rain and snow to melt off their shoulders, the roads are broad enough to allow three wagons to pass abreast. (I: 193. V: 76, 77)
Magic had died away when the Doom fell on Valyria and the Lands of the Long Summer (I: 197)
Some claim to still know the spells that must be used to rework Valyrian steel (I: 235. III: 359. SSM: 1)
The topless towers of Valyria were reputedly very beautiful (I: 313)
Old Valyria is now old ruins (I: 374)
High Valyrian is still used by some (I: 603)
The Targaryens were on Dragonstone for about two centuries after the Doom before invading Westeros (I: 692. SSM: 1)
Dragonstone was the westernmost outpost of the Freehold of Valyria (II: 3. V: 76)
The Valyrians had great skill in shaping stone, although much of their knowledge is now lost (II: 3)
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 maesters say that Valyria was the last ember of magic, and even that is now destroyed (II: 325)
The Valyrians commonly wed brother to sister (II: 364)
Valyria produced items known as glass candles, at least as of a thousand years before the Doom. They are said to burn with a light that does not flicker and casts strange shadows only under the influence of magic, or perhaps during portentous times. They are made of obsidian, twisted in shape with razor-sharp edges, and can be green or black in color (II: 638. IV: 9)
Dracarys means dragonfire in High Valyrian (III: 94)
North of Valyria the Smoking Sea is demon-haunted (III: 98)
The cities of Slaver's Bay are descended from Old Ghis, which was destroyed by the might of young Valyria 5,000 years ago. Its legions were shattered, its brick walls were pulled down, its streets and buildings turned to ash and cinder by dragonflame, its fields sown with salt, sulfur, and skulls (III: 257)
The gods of Ghis were destroyed with its fall, and so were its people. The inhabitants of the slaver cities are mongrels, and the Ghiscari tongue is largely forgotten; the slave cities speak the High Valyrian of their conquerors, or what they made of it (III: 257)
Old Ghis ruled an empire while the Valyrians were still savage, or so it's said (III: 265)
The Ghiscari lust for dragons. Five times had Old Ghis fought with Valyria when the world was young, and five times it lost because the Freehold of Valyria had dragons and the Empire had none (III: 307)
Valar morghulis is a well-known phrase in High Valyrian, and means "All men must die" (III: 308, 748)
Valyrian steel blades are scarce and costly, especially since the Doom, yet thousands of them remain in the world, perhaps some two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone (III: 359. SSM: 1)
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)
There is a haunting ballad about two dying lovers amidst the Doom of Valyria, sung in High Valyrian (III: 676)
Most people in Westeros, even among the nobility, do not know High Valyrian (III: 676)
Obsidian was known as "frozen fire" in High Valyrian (III: 885)
Valonqar is a word in High Valyrian, meaning "little brother" (IV: 55, 533, 584)
Braavos was discovered by the Moonsingers, who led refugees there to a place where the dragons of Valyria could not find them (IV: 89)
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)
The dragonlords of old used enchanted dragon horns to call and command their dragons, it's claimed (IV: 277, 279)
Prince Garin the Great is called the wonder of the Rhoyne. It's said he made Valyria tremble, leading an army of a quarter of a million men strong against them, but he and his followers were destroyed (IV: 299)
The Fourteen Flames were the fourteen volcanoes of Valyria. In blisteringly hot mines underneath them, thousands of slaves from across the continent toiled, burned, and died to find gold and silver (IV: 321)
Firewyrms, creatures that lived in the caverns and mines beneath the Fourteen Flames, were a danger to miners (IV: 321)
When there was war, the Valyrians took thousands of slaves, and when there was peace they bred them (IV: 321)
Slave revolts were common in the mines, but the Valyrians were strong in sorcery and able to put them down (IV: 321)
It's said the first Faceless Man existed in Valyria. There he brought death to the slaves who lived horrid lives toiling in the heat of the Fourteen Flames, praying for an end. He came to realize that the many gods they prayed to were one god, and that he was an instrument of the gods (IV: 321-322)
The Faceless Men may have had a role in the Doom of Valyria (IV: 322)
The very existence of Braavos was a secret for a century, and its location was hidden for three centuries more (IV: 506)
Braavos was founded by people from many different lands, with half a hundred different gods between them, who fled there to find safety from the Valyrians. It's said that the Nine Free Cities are the daughters of Valyria, but that Braavos is a bastard (IV: 506-507)
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)
All Valyrian magic was rooted in blood and fire. They could set dragonglass candles to burning with strange, unpleasantly-bright light. With the obsidian candles, they could see across vast distances, look into a man's mind, and speak with one another though they were half the world apart (IV: 682)
Dragonlore was once accumulated in Valyria (SSM: 1)
The Freehold of Valyria was neither a kingdom nor an empire. Instead, all "free holders" -- freeborn landowners -- had a say in its governance. In practice, however, families of great wealth, high birth, and strong sorcerous ability tended to dominate (SSM: 1)
Dragonbone was not used in the process of making Valyrian steel (SSM: 1)
There are descendants of the Valyrians scattered across the world. Many are in the Free Cities, most of which had their origins as Valyrian colonies, although they have become intermarried and mixed with other peoples (SSM: 1)
The Valyrians settled Dragonstone not long before the Doom (SSM: 1)
Valyrian steel must be made, as it cannot be found as a raw material (SSM: 1)
Valyrian steel was mostly used for weapons, although there were probably non-weapons made with it as well (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
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1.2. The Children of the Forest

The children first worshiped the nameless gods which the First Men later adopted (I: 19)
The children are said to have carved the faces in the weirwoods during the dawn centuries before the coming of the First Men across the narrow sea (I: 19)
The children have not been seen in thousands of years (I: 209)
The Dawn Age was long before the time of the Andals and their new religion (I: 432)
The children are said to have once called the nameless gods to send the hammer of the waters from the Children's Tower (I: 498)
The children are said to have known much of dreams, knew the songs of trees and the speech of animals, could fly like birds and swim like fish. Their music was so beautiful it would make one weep to hear it (I: 616)
The children used obsidian (also called dragonglass by smallfolk) arrowheads and blades. The Children worked no metal, wearing shirts of woven leaves and bark leg-bindings (I: 616. IV: 10)
The children of the forest were people of the Dawn Age, the very first before kings and kingdoms. There were no cities, castles, or holdfasts, not even towns. (I: 617)
The children of the forest are considered to be different from men, no larger than children at their tallest, dark and beautiful (I: 617)
The children lived in the woods, in caves, crannogs, and secret tree towns (I: 617)
Male and female would hunt together using bows made of weirwood and flying snares (I: 617)
The gods of the children were those of forest, stream, and stone whose names were secret (I: 617)
The wise men of the children were named greenseers. It is said they carved the faces in the weirwoods to keep watch on the woods (I: 617. II: 323)
No one knows how long the children reigned in the lands that would become the Seven Kingdoms, nor where they came from (I: 617)
The children went to war with the First Men because of the destruction of the carved weirwoods (I: 617)
The greenseers were supposed to have a used powerful magic to make the seas rise and sweep away land, shattering the Arm. It was too late, however (I: 617)
The wars between the children and the First Men went on, in the favor of the larger, stronger, and more technologically advanced First Men, until the wise men of both races forged the Pact at the Isle of Faces (I: 617)
The greenseers and wood dancers met with the First Men on the Isle of Faces (I: 617)
The Pact gave the children the deep forests forever, and the First Men promised not to cut down any more weirwoods (I: 617)
The sacred order of green men that tended the Isle of Faces was created after the making of the Pact, when all the weirwoods on the isle were carved with faces to witness the agreement (I: 617)
The Pact began four thousand years of friendship between the children and the First Men (I: 617)
The Pact ended the Dawn Age and began the Age of Heroes (I: 617)
The Andals burned out all the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, and slew the children when they found them (I: 618)
Some of the children of the forest reputedly had the greensight and that these wise men were the greenseers (II: 323)
Maesters believe that the greensight was not magic, simply another kind of knowledge. They believe that their wisdom had something to do with the faces in the trees (II: 323)
The First Men believed that the greenseers of the children of the forest could see through the eyes of the carved weirwoods, which is why they cut down the trees when they warred upon them (II: 323)
Supposedly, the greenseers had power over the beasts of the wood, the birds in the trees, and even fish (II: 323)
The maesters believe that the children of the forest are now forgotten, just as their lore is (II: 325)
Histories say the crannogmen grew close to the children of the forest when the greenseers tried to bring the waters down upon the Neck (II: 534-535)
All greenseers had the greensight and were wargs as well, and the greatest of them could wear the skins of any beast that flies, swims, or crawls. They could also see through the eyes of the weirwoods and see the truth that lies beneath the world (III: 107)
High Heart is a huge hill a day's ride from Sallydance in the Riverlands. About its top stand the stumps of thirty-one once-mighty weirwoods, so wide around that a child could use one for a bed (III: 249)
High Heart was sacred to the children of the forest, and their magic is said to linger, protecting anyone who sleeps there from harm (III: 249)
The smallfolk shun High Heart, saying it was haunted by ghosts of the children who had died there when the Andal king Erreg the Kingslayer had cut down the grove (III: 249)
The green men, the guardians of the Isle of Faces, are said to have dark green skin and leaves instead of hair, and sometimes they have antlers as well (III: 283)
The green men are said to ride on elks (III: 636)
It is recorded that the children of the forest used to give the Night's Watch a hundred daggers of dragonglass each year during the Age of Heroes (IV: 80)

Last revised January 31, 2007
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1.3. The First Men

The First Men believed that a man who passes sentence should swing the blade. (I: 14)
The barrows of the First Men are spread throughout the North (I: 93)
The First Men used runes, which they carved on rocks and into metal, but these are not sufficient to illuminate their history (I: 246. IV: 80)
Some 12,000 years ago the First Men arrived from the east by crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leather shields and they rode horses (I: 617)
No horse had ever been seen on the continent of Westeros before the coming of the First Men (I: 617)
As the First Men built farms and holdfasts, they cut down the carved weirwoods and burned them. The children went to war because of this (I: 617)
The wars between the children and the First Men went on, in the favor of the larger, stronger, and more technologically advanced First Men, until the wise men of both races forged the Pact at the Isle of Faces (I: 617)
The Pact gave the coasts, high plains, meadows, mountains, and bogs to the First Men. In turn, they gave the children the forests and promised to cut down no more weirwoods (I: 617)
The Pact began 4,000 years of friendship between the children and the First Men. Eventually the First Men put aside the old gods they brought with them from east across the sea, and took up those of the children of the forest (I: 617)
The Pact ended the Dawn Age and began the Age of Heroes (I: 617)
The Pact endured through the Age of Heroes, the Long Night, and the birth of the Seven Kingdoms. Yet centuries later other peoples began to arrive in the land (I: 618)
The wars between the First Men and the Andals lasted hundreds of years, but eventually the six southron realms fell to them. Only the Kings of Winter remained in the North (I: 618)
The First Men built the Wall (I: 654)
The First Men believed that the greenseers of the children of the forest could see through the eyes of the carved weirwoods, which is why they cut down the trees when they warred upon them (II: 323)
The Fist of the First Men is a hill beyond the Wall that juts above a dense tangle of forest. Its windswept heights are visible from miles away. It is an ancient ringfort used by the First Men in the Dawn Age (II: 371)
For some reason, a direwolf warg refuses to enter the enclosure of the Fist, but domesticated animals such as a raven and horses don't object (but later caged ravens show disquiet) (II: 372, 374)
Syggerik means "deceiver" in the language of the First Men, which the giants still speak (II: 544)
Magnar means lord in the Old Tongue (III: 80)
The laws of hospitality are as old as the First Men. The guest right protects a guest who has eaten his host's food from harm, at least for the length of the stay (III: 83)
The Old Tongue is a harsh, clanging language (III: 167)
There are songs in the Old Tongue among the wildlings, and they make for strange and wild music (III: 172)
The green men, the guardians of the Isle of Faces, are said to have dark green skin and leaves instead of hair, and sometimes they have antlers as well (III: 283)
Tristifer, the Fourth of his Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills, ruled from the Trident to the Neck thousands of years before Jenny of Oldstones and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the Andals. He was called the Hammer of Justice, and the singers say that he fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety. When he raised his castle, now a ruin known only as Oldstones, it was the strongest in Westeros (III: 520)
Tristifer IV was killed in his hundredth battle, when seven Andal kings joined forces against him. His son, Tristifer V, was not his equal, and soon the realm was lost, and the castle, and then the line. With Tristifer V died the First Men line of House Mudd, that had ruled the riverlands for a thousand years before the Andals came (III: 520. SSM: 1)
The most proper way of receiving the guest right is to eat bread and salt (III: 556, 562)
Legend says that King Sherrit called down his curse on the Andals at the Nightfort on the Wall (III: 624)
The Fingers were one of the places where the Andals first landed, to wrest the Vale from the First Men (III: 770)
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)
The Darklyns were petty kings before the Andals came, during the Age of Heroes (IV: 133)
The blood of the First Men runs strong in Crackclaw Point, as the inhabitants fought off the Andals but eventually accepted Andal brides (IV: 282)
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)
Houses descended of the First Men tend to have short, simple, descriptive names (SSM: 1)

Last revised November 30, 2009
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1.4. The Andals

The Andals brought the Seven with them from across the narrow sea (I: 432)
When the Andals crossed the narrow sea and swept away the kingdoms of the First Men, the sons of fallen kings held to their vows in the Night's Watch (I: 553)
The Andals were the first new invaders after the First Men had settled their peace with the Children and lived in harmony with them for 4,000 years. They were tall and fair-haired warriors who carried steel weapons and the seven-pointed star of the new gods painted on their bodies. This was at least 6,000 years ago (I: 361, 617-618)
The wars between the First Men and the Andals lasted hundreds of years, but eventually the six southron realms fell to them. Only the Kings of Winter remained in the North (I: 618)
The Andals burned out all the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, and slew the children when they found them (I: 618)
The Brackens and the Blackwoods have been feuding for thousands of years, from the time of the Age of Heroes when they were rivals as kings over the riverlands at various points in time. Matters were not helped when the Brackens abandoned the old gods in favor of the Seven (I: 662. THK: 43. SSM: 1)
The Andals came some 4,000 years ago to the Iron Islands (I: 688. II: 137)
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)
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 smallfolk shun High Heart, saying it was haunted by ghosts of the children who had died there when the Andal king Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down the grove (III: 249)
Tristifer, the Fourth of his Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills, ruled from the Trident to the Neck thousands of years before Jenny of Oldstones and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the Andals. He was called the Hammer of Justice, and the singers say that he fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety. When he raised his castle, now a ruin known only as Oldstones, it was the strongest in Westeros (III: 520)
Tristifer IV was killed in his hundredth battle, when seven Andal kings joined forces against him. His son, Tristifer V, was not his equal, and soon the realm was lost, and the castle, and then the line. With Tristifer V died House Mudd, that had ruled the riverlands for a thousand years before the Andals came (III: 520)
Legend says that it was at the Nightfort where the Rat Cook served the Andal king his prince-and-bacon pie (III: 624)
The legend has it that the Rat Cook had cooked the son of the Andal king in a big pie with onions, carrots, mushrooms, lots of pepper and salt, a rasher of bacon, and a dark red Dornish wine. Then he served him to his father, who praised the taste and had a second slice. Afterward the gods transformed the cook into a monstrous white rat who could only eat his own young. He roamed the Nightfort ever since, devouring his children, but still his hunger was not sated. The moral of the story is that the gods did not curse him for his murder or for his serving the Andal king his son in a pie, for a man has a right to vengeance, but he was cursed for slaying a guest beneath his roof and that the gods cannot forgive (III: 631)
The Fingers were one of the places where the Andals first landed, to wrest the Vale from the First Men (III: 770)
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)
When the Andals first invaded Westeros, some of their warriors had the seven-pointed star of the Faith carved into their flesh (IV: 63)
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)
The Darklyns were petty kings before the Andals came, during the Age of Heroes (IV: 133)
The blood of the First Men runs strong in Crackclaw Point, as the inhabitants fought off the Andals but eventually accepted Andal brides (IV: 282)
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)
Andalos, the ancestral land of the Andals, lies to the east of Pentos. It is said the Andals took it from the hairy men who were there before men, cousins to the Ibbense. The heart of that realm lies to the northeast of Pentos, but the southern regions are known as the Flatlands in Pentos (V: 79)
The Faith teaches that the Seven once walked in Andalos in human form (V: 79)
Further east beyond the Flatlands lie the Velvet Hills (V: 79)
Andalos is said to have been the realm of Hugor of the Hill, and the Faith teaches in The Seven-Pointed Star that the Seven themselves crowned him with a glowing crown made of stars (V: 79, 80)
The Seven-Pointed Star refers to the Smith making suits of iron plates for the sons of Hugor of the Hill. It is claimed in Essos that the Andals learned iron-working from the Rhoynar who dwelt along the river (V: 80)
There exists an ancient melee format which uses seven teams (SSM: 1)
Maps still mark out the lands of the Andals on the eastern continent, but the area has seen so many invasions and migrations that very little of the Andal people remains there (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
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1.5. The Rhoynar

Nymeria was a warrior queen who led her people across the narrow sea 1,000 years ago (I: 59. II: 233)
A story (probably false) has it that Nymeria led women who fled from their cities on the Rhoyne river (I: 203. SSM: 1)
Nymeria was the warrior queen of the Rhoyne who brought ten thousand ships to land in Dorne, taking Mors Martell as her husband and aiding him in vanquishing all rivals for the rule of Dorne (I: 690)
The Rhoynar influence led to the rulers of Dorne to style themselves "Prince" rather than "King" (I: 690)
Rhoynar law also led to lands and titles being passed to the eldest child, regardless of gender (I: 690)
It is said that the Dornishmen have warred against the Reach and Storm's End for a thousand years, which is likely dating from the unification of Dorne under Mors Martell and Nymeria (II: 233)
Beldecar's History of the Rhoynish Wars makes mention of elephants (III: 136)
There are three sorts of Dornishmen, as King Daeron I had observed. There are salty Dornishmen who live along the coasts, lithe and dark with smooth olive skin and long black hair; sandy Dornishmen who live in the deserts and the long river valleys, who are even darker, faces burned brown by the hot Dornish sun; and stony Dornishmen who live in the passes and heights of the Red Mountains, the biggest and fairest, sons of the Andals and the First Men, brown-haired or blond with faces that freckled or burned in the sun (III: 430)
Rhoynish influence in Dornish customs 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. SSM: 1)
Prince Garin the Great is called the wonder of the Rhoyne. It's said he made Valyria tremble, leading an army of a quarter of a million men strong against them, but he and his followers were destroyed (IV: 299)
The orphans of the Greenblood are considered Rhoynar in Dorne. When Nymeria wed Mors Martell, she ordered the boats that carried them across the narrow sea burned so that they would know there was no going back. Those Rhoynar who wept at the thought of never seeing Mother Rhoyne again hammered boats out of the burned hulks and became the orphans of the Greenblood (IV: 306)
The Rhoynar worshipped the great Rhoyne river, calling it their Mother. There were lesser gods as well, such as the turtle-god known as the Old Man of the River, Mother Rhoyne's son. The Old Man of the River fought the Crab King for dominion of those who dwelled below the water (IV: 306)
There is bad blood between the Fowlers and the Yronwoods since the Fowlers chose Martell over Yronwood during Nymeria's War (IV: 594)
The Seven-Pointed Star refers to the Smith making suits of iron plates for the sons of Hugor of the Hill. It is claimed in Essos that the Andals learned iron-working from the Rhoynar who dwelt along the river (V: 80)
The Rhoyne lies between the Dothraki Sea and the Flatlands (V: 80)
On leaving the Flatlands, a road leads into the Velvet Hills and to the ruin of the Rhoynish city of Ghoyan Drohe upon the Little Rhoyne (V: 81)
Ghoyan Drohe was razed by Valyria and its dragons (V: 81)
Rhoynish customs impacted Dorne in a number of ways, especially in the rights of women, but it did not extend to women taking active part in battles (SSM: 1)
The Rhoynar brought various old gods with them, but they have largely disappeared and been replaced by the Faith of the Seven (SSM: 1)
The Martells name themselves prince or princess after the Rhoynar custom. The Rhoynar rulers of the various cities along the Rhoyne river followed the same convention (SSM: 1)
There is a stigma attached to homosexuality everywhere in the Seven Kingdoms, save in Dorne (SFC)

Last revised February 21, 2016
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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3. The North

In winter, snows can fall forty feet deep (I: 3)
Late summer snows are not unusual. However, they tend to be brief and not particularly damaging to agriculture (I: 34. SSM: 1)
It is said that it grows so cold in the north that a man's laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death (I: 39)
In the south, the northmen are said to be made all of ice and melt in the southron heat (I: 162)
Rain falls cold and hard, and sometimes turns into hail that can send men running for cover and ruin crops, even during a summer (I: 238)
Bronze and iron were the metals of the north, strong and dark to fight the cold (II: 79)
Once the autumn is declared by the maesters, the lords of the North store away a part of the grain they have harvested. How much is a matter of choice; between one fifth and one fourth seems prudent, however (II: 184)
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)
Even in the deep of the wolfswood there are foresters, crofters, and hunters (III: 105)
The northmen have long memories. A lord who does not seek his rightful vengeance threatens to have his own men turn on him (III: 229)
It's said a maiden girl could walk the kingsroad in her name-day gown and still go unmolested, and travelers could find fire, bread, and salt at many an inn and holdfast (III: 276)
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)
In the North, food is smoked, salted, and otherwise preserved ahead of winter. Lords keep "glass gardens" to try and supply their own castles even in winter. Coastal communities depend on fish, although even in winter ice fishing is common on the rivers and Long Lake. Poor harvests before winter will mean famine, however. (SSM: 1)
Houses descended of the First Men tend to have short, simple, descriptive names (SSM: 1)
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, 2)

Last revised November 30, 2009
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3.1. Geography (South of the Wall)

The North is nearly as large as the other six kingdoms put together (I: 33)
The North is not heavily populated, largely bogs and fields and forests, with few large inns to be found even on the kingsroad (I: 33)
The barrows of the First Men are spread throughout the North (I: 93)
The kingsroad past Winterfell is little more than a forest track (I: 99)
To the west of the kingsroad, as it goes north after passing Winterfell, the land is mostly flint hills and often capped with watchtowers. The land to the east is lower, rolling plains. Stone bridges span swift, narrow rivers (I: 99)
Farms extend in rings from holdfasts (I: 99)
There are rude inns to be found along the kingsroad (I: 99)
Three days from Winterfell the land grows more and more mountainous, heavily forested, and little populated. Within the fifth day of riding north of Winterfell, the hills have given way to mountains (I: 99)
The large forest north and west of Winterfell is the wolfswood (I: 100)
A wooden holdfast sits on the edge of the wolfswood (I: 100)
Nights are well below freezing further north of Winterfell, even in the late summer (I: 101)
Eighteen days ride north from Winterfell stands an abandoned holdfast (I: 106)
The White Knife River leads to White Harbor and the sea (I: 115)
The causeway cutting through the Neck is very narrow (I: 118)
The Neck is a vast boggy swamp, with pools of mud and quicksand, and flowers unique to the region (I: 118)
Mole's Town is a little village half a league south of Wall, on the kingsroad (I: 176)
It is rare to find a grove of two or three weirwoods together (I: 434)
Mole's Town is bigger than it seems, but three-quarters of it is underground tunnels and damp warm cellars (I: 648)
Mole's Town's whorehouse is marked by a wooden shack no larger than a privy with a red lantern hung outside (I: 648)
It takes about a fortnight to sail from Lannisport to Bear Island (II: 146)
A barge can be taken some of the way from White Harbor to Winterfell (II: 179)
Cerwyn Castle lies half a day's ride from Winterfell (II: 190)
The Stony Shore is on the western coast. Various fishing villages line it (II: 290)
Sea Dragon Point is on the western coast, and must be rounded by sea before one can get to the tidal flats north of Deepwood Motte (II: 290)
Saltspear is the long, narrow bay west of the Neck. It connects to the Fever River, whose headwaters are less than twenty miles from Moat Cailin (II: 290)
The Stony Shore is south of Deepwood Motte, the villages on it near to Torrhen's Square (II: 395)
There are people (and perhaps lords) who live deep inside the wolfswood (II: 487)
The edge of the forest to the west of Winterfell has a stony ground (II: 531)
Northwest of Winterfell is the heart of the wolfswood (II: 531)
Deepwood Motte is north by northwest of Winterfell on the other side of the wolfswood (II: 531)
Sentinels and soldier pines grow thick in the wolfswood, making it dark and gloomy before they give way to oaks and hawthorns amongst stony hills. The ground is uneven (II: 531)
There are quarries in the wolfswood (II: 532)
There is a muddy brook two or three hours north by northwest of Winterfell (II: 532)
There's an old mill sitting alone on the Acorn Water. There are a dozen villages and holdfasts arrayed in the same general area (II: 535)
Skagos is a large island in the Bay of Seals. Because of its remoteness, it has little contact with the mainland and although in theory subject to the Starks, in practice its lords go their own way (II: 544. SSM: 1)
Brandon's Gift and the New Gift stretch from the Wall to fifty leagues south of it (III: 83, 452, 453)
Even in the deep of the wolfswood there are foresters, crofters, and hunters (III: 105)
There are no roads through the twisted mountain valleys in the northern part of the North past the wolfswood. Beneath the grey stone peaks lay still blue lakes, long and deep and narrow, and there are endless piney woods (III: 274)
The foothills of the northern mountains are largely of flint (III: 274)
Conifers such as pine and sentinel trees become increasingly common as one goes north from the wolfswood, until they're the only trees (III: 274)
The high glens in the mountains rarely run straight north and south (III: 275)
The mountain streams are small and icy, and the game is scarcer (III: 275)
People live near and in the mountains. The Umbers are mostly east of the kingsroad, but they graze their sheep in the high meadows in the summer. Of the mountain clans, there are Wulls west of the mountains along the Bay of Ice, Harclays in the southern hills, and Knotts, Liddles, Norreys, and even some Flints up in the high places (III: 275, 573. SSM: 1)
Queenscrown is an old village, abandoned for some years because of increasing problems with wildling raiders, with a stout holdfast on an island in a lake south of the village where oak trees grow thick along the shore, and apple trees grow as well near the inn. It lies within the New Gift (III: 452, 453, 457, 468)
The land between Queenscrown and the Wall is largely grassland: fallow fields and low rolling hills, high meadows and lowland bogs (III: 452, 468)
The New Gift belongs to the Night's Watch, as does Brandon's Gift which lies north of it. It's said that Brandon the Builder gave all the land south of the Wall to the black brothers, to a distance of twenty-five leagues, for their sustenance and support, but some maesters say that it was some other Brandon, not the Builder (III: 452, 453)
Thousands of years after the creation of Brandon's gift, Good Queen Alysanne visited the Wall on her dragon Silverwing, and she thought the Night's Watch was so brave that she had the Old King double the size of their lands to fifty leagues, making the New Gift (III: 453)
Wildling raids have increased over the last years as the Watch has grown weaker, and so the places nearest the Wall have been raided so often that people have moved further south into the mountains or into the Umber lands east of the kingsroad (III: 453)
At Queenscrown a stone causeway three feet wide, hidden under the water, provides a way to reach the holdfast in the lake. Its path twists and turns so as not to be easily followed, and so that enemies will be exposed to arrows for a longer time (III: 453, 454, 468)
Good Queen Alysanne slept in the holdfast at Queenscrown, so the folk of the village painted the holdfast's merlons gold in her honor (III: 454, 468)
The holdfast at Queenscrown is closed by a heavy oak door guarding a small strongroom where steps leading up the tower and down into the undervault are guarded by iron gates. A small iron grate set into the ceiling serves as a murder holes. The tower has five floors (III: 454, 455, 468)
The second story of the holdfast is a maze of dark cells with no windows, the third story has arrow slits, the fourth has proper windows, and the fifth is a big round chamber with arched doors on three sides opening onto small stone balconies. The fourth side is a privy chamber perched above a sewer chute that drops straight into the lake (III: 455)
There are trees in the Neck that stand twice as a tall as a five story tower (III: 455)
South of Queenscrown are the foothills and their mountains, but in all other directions are the rolling plains of the New Gift (III: 455, 456, 468)
There are ancient and abandoned towerhouses throughout the New Gift, remnants of the small lords who had once resided there (III: 460)
A dozen streams drain the wetwood of the Neck, all shallow, silty, and uncharted. They cannot even be called rivers, as the channels are always drifting and changing. There are endless sandbars, deadfalls, and tangles of rotting trees (III: 525)
There are ways through the Neck that are not on any map, known only to the crannogmen, such as narrow trails between the bogs and wet roads through the reeds that only boats can follow (III: 526)
Weatherback Ridge is near to Castle Black and is within view of the kingsroad. A beacon burning there can be seen from the castle (III: 553)
Past Skagos is the Shivering Sea (III: 608)
There are no weirwoods on the stony island in the lake at Queenscrown (III: 626)
The shore of the Bay of Seals is wooded, and snarled by rocks and whirlpools (IV: 216)
The journey by galley from Eastwatch to Braavos is said to be a long one (IV: 217)
The waters of the narrow sea beyond Skagos are rough in the autumn (IV: 217)
Skagos sits at the mouth of the Bay of Seals, mountainous and forbidding, with the savage people who live there residing in caves or grim mountain fastnesses (IV: 220)
The isle of Skane, near to Skagos, is uninhabited after men from Skagos allegedly attacked, killing and then eating all those they found there (IV: 220)
The currents around Skagos are treacherous (IV: 220-221)
The region of Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore of the North are ten times larger than all the Iron Isles combined. It is a thinly populated area (IV: 265)
The autumn storms between Skagos and Braavos can be fierce, and sometimes bring a terrible cold that can freeze ropes and sails (IV: 380)
The journey from Dorne to the North is a long one, taking months (SSM: 1)

Last revised July 28, 2009
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3.1.1. Moat Cailin

Moat Cailin commands the causeway through the Neck. Great basalt stones as large as cottages once made up a curtain wall as high as that of Winterfell's. The wooden keep was rotted away a thousand years past. Only three of the original twenty towers the singers claim remain of the great stronghold of the First Men (I: 498)
Moat Cailin's Gatehouse Tower is sound and boasts a few feet of standing wall to either side (I: 498)
The Drunkard's Tower in the bog where the south and west walls had once met, leans heavily (I: 498)
The tall, slender Children's Tower has lost half its crown (I: 498)
All three towers are green with moss, and a tree was growing out from between the stones on the north side of the Gatehouse Tower (I: 499)
Moat Cailin is surrounded by quicksands and suckholes and is teeming with snakes. An army would have to wade through waist-deep muck and a moat full of lizard-lions, and then scale walls slippery with moss while archers fired from the other towers (I: 499)
Saltspear is the long, narrow bay west of the Neck. It connects to the Fever River, whose headwaters are less than twenty miles from Moat Cailin (II: 290)
It seems that Moat Cailin has stood for some 10,000 years (II: 674)
A dozen streams drain the wetwood of the Neck, all shallow, silty, and uncharted. They cannot even be called rivers, as the channels are always drifting and changing. There are endless sandbars, deadfalls, and tangles of rotting trees (III: 525)
There are ways through the Neck that are not on any map, known only to the crannogmen, such as narrow trails between the bogs and wet roads through the reeds that only boats can follow (III: 526)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.1.2. Trade and Resources

Wool is one important trade item from the North (II: 200)
There are silversmiths at White Harbor (III: 837)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2. The Starks

The Valyrian steel greatsword of the Starks, Ice, is four hundred years old. It is named after the sword of the Kings of the North, who ruled in the Age of Heroes to the time of Aegon (I: 12, 20, etc.)
The Starks are Wardens of the North (I: 12)
The blood of the First Men flows in the veins of the Starks (I: 14, etc.)
The Starks are not as other men when it comes to their illegitimate children. They raise their bastards among their children and call them son or daughter openly (I: 55)
The Starks hold tournaments in disdain for being useless pageantry (I: 242)
Winterfell has hosted harvest festivities for centuries (II: 237)
"May your winters be short and your summers bountiful," is a common response to the swearing of oaths (II: 241)
The greatsword Ice is nearly as tall as a man (II: 597)
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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3.2.1. Winterfell

There is a holdfast amongst the hills a few hours from Winterfell, north of a bridge and river (I: 11, 14)
The castle has a kennel (I: 17)
The godswood of Winterfell is dark, three acres of old forest untouched for 10,000 years, which the castle was raised around. There are sentinel trees, oaks, ironwoods, hawthorns, ash, and soldier pines in it(I: 18. II: 520)
The heart tree of Winterfell has a long and melancholy face, with deep-cut eyes of dried sap, which seem oddly watchful. It sits beside a dark pool (I: 19)
Legend has it that Brandon the Builder laid the first stone of Winterfell (I: 19)
The walls of Winterfell are granite (I: 19)
The crypt of Winterfell is deep under the earth, entered by narrow and winding steps The crypt is always cold (I: 33, 34)
The crypt is long and narrow, with pillars moving two by two along its length. Between pillars stand the sepulchres of the Starks of Winterfell, the likenesses of the dead seated on thrones, iron swords set before them to keep the restless spirits from wandering and snarling direwolves at their feet (I: 34, 35, etc.)
The Great Hall of Winterfell has a large fireplace (I: 41)
A raised platform at one end of the hall seats the Starks and honored guests (I: 41)
Tables and benches seat the garrison, servants, and other folk of the castle (I: 41, 43)
Dogs are allowed in the Great Hall even during feasting of royalty, but they are kept to the far end (I: 43)
The door of the Great Hall opens up on the castle yard. (I: 46)
The Great Hall is within the inner walls of Winterfell (I: 46)
The Lady of Winterfell's chambers in the Great Keep are the warmest in all the castle. In later summer, fires are rarely needed to heat it.(I: 49)
Winterfell had been built over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, turning the glass gardens into places of moist warmth. (I: 49)
Open pools smoke in a dozen small courtyards (I: 49)
The windows in the Great Keep are high and narrow (I: 49)
There is a covered bridge with a window that connects the Great Keep to the armory. The window overlooks the yard where weapons practice is done (I: 60)
There is a tall sentinel tree growing next to the armory wall, inside the godswood. Branches overhang the armory, roof (I: 66)
Winterfell has many tunnels (I: 66)
Over the centuries, Winterfell has grown into a sprawling complex. Some of the old halls slant up and down (I: 66)
Rainworn gargoyles decorate the First Keep (I: 66)
There are hills and valleys beneath Winterfell. The builders never levelled the ground (I: 66)
A covered bridge leads from the fourth floor of the bell tower to the second floor of the rookery (I: 66)
One can get inside of the inner wall by the south gate, climb three floors and run around Winterfell through a narrow tunnel in the stone, to exit on the ground level at the north gate (I: 67)
The inner wall is 100 feet high and the outer is 80 feet high. Between them is a wide moat (I: 67. II: 528)
There are crows nests atop the broken tower (I: 67)
Small sparrows nest in the cracks between stones (I: 68)
Owls sleep in the dusty loft above the old armory (I: 68)
The broken tower had been the tallest tower in Winterfell, a wall tower. Some 140 years past, it had been hit by lighting and was set afire. The upper two-thirds of the tower collapsed, and no one bothered to rebuild (I: 68)
The mortar that held the stones of the tower has dried and crumbled away, so that the stones are loose (I: 68)
One can leap from the armory roof to the roof of the guard hall, and run across to come up to the blind side of the First Keep (I: 68)
The First Keep is the oldest part of the castle, a squat and round fortress that is taller than it seems (I: 68)
The broken tower leans very closely to the First Keep's north side, near enough that a boy can stretch and grab a hold of it to climb the further ten feet necessary to reach the top (I: 68)
Winterfell may have the only complete copy of Ayrmidon's Engines of War (I: 72)
The library of Winterfell has its own tower. There are exterior stone steps which corkscrew down the tower's length (I: 73)
The library of Winterfell contains a volume on the properties of dragons (I: 101)
The throne of the Lord of Winterfell is cold stone, polished smooth, with carved heads of direwolves snarling at the ends of massive arms. The seat is very large (I: 205)
Beyond the castle lies the market square and the village of small neat houses of wood and undressed stone with chimneys leading up from wood-burning fireplaces (I: 333)
Many of the houses are empty in the summer, only some one in five occupied. As summer ends and winter grows stronger, farmers leave their farms and distant holdfasts to take up residence (I: 333)
The Smoking Log is the name of the village's alehouse (I: 333)
There are guard turrets on the outer wall (I: 475)
A series of chisel-cut handholds make a ladder in the stone of guard turret's inner wall (I: 477)
There is a moat between the inner and outer walls (I: 477. II: 489)
Across the godswood from the heart tree, beneath the windows of the Guest House, an underground hot spring feeds three small pools. The wall that looms above them is thick with moss (I: 478)
Beneath the First Keep is an ancient lichyard, headstones covered with pale lichen, where the Kings of Winter laid their faithful servants (I: 481)
The underground crypts of Winterfell are cavernous, longer than the complex above ground, and there are levels underneath the chiefly used one where the older kings were entombed (I: 613)
Ravens reside in the rookery above the maester's tower (I: 615)
The panes of glass in the windows of the towers and halls are diamond-shaped (II: 52)
The pool beneath the heart tree in the godswood is very deep (II: 187)
The doors into the Great Hall are wide and made of oak and iron (II: 237)
The Great Hall can hold eight long rows of trestle tables, four to each side of the central aisle (II: 237)
Winterfell has hosted harvest festivities for centuries (II: 237)
There is an exit in the rear of the Great Hall, which leads to a dimly lit gallery (II: 243)
The maester's turret is below the rookery (II: 323)
There is an iron, barred gate that opens into the godswood. The spaces between bars are barely large enough to fit a hand through (II: 486)
There is flat stone under the dirt which the barred gate is above, so that it cannot be dug under (II: 486)
There are other entrances into the godswood, although those have wooden doors rather than gates (II: 486)
There is a Guards Hall (presumably barracks) (II: 488)
There is a moat around Winterfell (II: 489)
The Bell Tower and glass gardens can be seen from the lord's chambers (II: 525-526, 530)
There is a well in Winterfell's yard (II: 527)
The Hunter's Gate is sited close to the kennels and kitchens. It opens directly on the fields and forests outside of Winterfell, allowing riders to come and go without having to cross through the winter town, so it is favored by hunting parties (II: 527)
The snug room from which the drawbridge is raised or lowered is in the gatehouse (II: 527)
The high inner walls are crenelated. Many watch turrets (more than thirty) line them (II: 528)
Winterfell has a brewhouse (II: 529)
The Great Hall of Winterfell can seat 500 people (II: 587)
There are iron spikes atop of the gatehouse, probably put in place to display the heads of criminals and traitors (II: 592)
Wine is kept in the castle vaults (II: 675)
The old inner ward is an artifact from when Winterfell was smaller. Archery butts can be found there (II: 676)
The old broken wall tower stands behind the old inner ward of Winterfell (II: 676)
There is a well in the center of the winter town's market square (II: 678)
The stable has a thatched roof and sits along the inside of the west wall (II: 680. III: 902)
The twisting stone stair that leads up to ground level from the crypts of Winterfell also lead further down to where vaults hold more ancient kings (II: 703)
The door to the crypts is made of old, heavy ironwood which lays at a slant to the ground. Only one person can approach it at a time (II: 704)
The First Keep shadows the entrance to the crypts (II: 704)
The First Keep has not been used in hundreds of years (II: 705)
The panes of the glass gardens are green and yellow (II: 705)
The Library Tower has hot water running through its walls (II: 705)
The Bell Tower has a turret for the maester at Winterfell (II: 705)
The East Gate exits to the King's Gate (II: 707)
An iron portcullis blocks off the Hunter's Gate (II: 708)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising Winterfell (III: 461)
The armory is a square building while the kitchen is round (III: 902)
Winterfell's gatehouse is made of two huge bulwarks, crenellations all along the top, flanking an arched gate (III: 903)

Last revised April 09, 2013
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3.2.2. Ancestors and History

The first lords of Winterfell had been hard men (I: 34)
There was a King of the North named Jon Stark who drove out sea raiders from the east and built the castle at White Harbor (I: 613)
The son of Jon Stark, Rickard Stark, took the Neck from the Marsh King and married his daughter (I: 613)
King Theon Stark was named the 'Hungry Wolf' because he was constantly at war (I: 613)
Brandon the Shipwright loved the sea. His tomb is empty, as he tried to sail west across the Sunset Sea and never returned. He never succeeded in his crossing (I: 613. SSM: 1)
His son Brandon the Burner was named so for torching all of his father's ships in grief (I: 613)
King Rodrik Stark won Bear Island in a wrestling match and gave it to the Mormonts, or so it's said (I: 613)
The last King of the North, who bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror, was Torrhen Stark (I: 613)
Cregan Stark once fought Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, who named him the finest swordsman he had ever faced (I: 613)
The Starks trace their ancestry from Brandon the Builder (I: 678)
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)
The crown of the Kings of Winter had been yielded up to Aegon the Conqueror when Torrhen Stark bent the knee. What became of the crown no one knew. It was an open circlet of hammered bronze incised with the runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black iron spikes wrought as longswords (II: 79)
The North has had no strength at sea for hundreds of years, ever since Brandon the Burner put his father's ships to the torch (II: 183)
Winterfell has hosted harvest festivities for centuries (II: 237)
It has been hundreds and thousands of years since the crannogmen swore their oaths of fealty to the Starks (II: 241)
All the wildling hosts that have attacked southwards have broken their strength on the Wall or by the power of Winterfell beyond (II: 276)
A number of Starks had been slain, flayed, and worn as cloaks in the past before the Boltons had bent the knee (II: 530)
The Boltons bent the knee to Winterfell a thousand years ago (II: 530)
Bael the Bard lived in the time of a Lord Brandon Stark (known to the wildlings as Brandon the Daughterless), who had no other children save a daughter. The story has it that Bael seduced the daughter, who gave birth to a bastard son who eventually inherited Winterfell (II: 544-545)
The stories say that Bael was slain by his bastard son, the young Lord Stark, because he refused to fight his own blood. Because of the kinslaying, the Starks were cursed; the story goes that Lord Stark's mother killed herself when she saw Bael's head upon Lord Stark's spear, and Lord Stark himself did not long outlive her when one of the Bolton lords skinned him (II: 545)
The Starks have been a noble, unbroken line for some 8,000 years (II: 552)
There's a listing of the lords of Winterfell in their tombs that seems to be roughly chronological, starting from Lord Rickard Stark and going back. It goes: Lord Rickard Stark, Lord Edwyle, Lord Willam and his brother Artos the Implacable, Lord Donner, Lord Beron, Lord Rodwell, one-eyed Lord Jonnel, Lord Barth, Lord Brandon, and Lord Cregan who fought Aemon the Dragonknight (II: 702)
There are more Kings of North mentioned (in no clear ordering, although it seems it's going from newer to older): Edwyn the Spring King, Jorah and Jonos, Brandon the Bad, Walton the Moon King, Edderion the Bridegroom, Eyron, Benjen the Sweet and Benjen the Bitter, and King Edrick Snowbeard. Some of them had done terrible things, but their tales are known (II: 703)
It's said that Torrhen, the King Who Knelt, offered his submission to Aegon the Conqueror on the south bank of the Red Fork in the riverlands, at the place where the river bends to flow southeastwards (III: 121)
The Karstarks trace their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but over the centuries it became Karhold and the Karhold Starks became the Karstarks (III: 231, 232)
Lord Eddard's maternal grandmother was a Flint of the mountains. She died before he was born (III: 275, 276)
When Gendel and Gorne, the brother Kings-beyond-the-Wall, managed to pass the Wall some 3,000 years ago, they were met by the force of the King in the North. He was slain by Gorne, but his son took up his crown and banner again and then cut down Gorne (III: 300)
The New Gift belongs to the Night's Watch, as does Brandon's Gift which lies north of it. It's said that Brandon the Builder gave all the land south of the Wall to the black brothers, to a distance of twenty-five leagues, for their sustenance and support, but some maesters say that it was some other Brandon, not the Builder (III: 452, 453)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising the Wall (III: 461)
When King Jaehaerys the Concilliator came to Winterfell in the first years of his reign, 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 for a time. (III: 468)
Lord Rickard had no siblings, but his father had a sister who married a younger son of Lord Raymar Royce, of the junior 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)
600 years ago, the commanders of the Night's Watch castles of Snowgate and the Nightfort went to war against one another and joined forces to murder their Lord Commander when he tried to stop them. The Stark in Winterfell had to take a hand, and their heads (III: 612)
It's said that the Stark in Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings joined forces against the Night's King, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He was defeated and his name and all records of him were destroyed (III: 629, 630)
Some say the Night's King was a Bolton, or a Magnar out of Skagos, others say he was an Umber, Flint, or Norrey. Others still say he was a Woodfoot, who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came, but others still say he was a Stark who was brother to the man who brought him down (III: 630)
Tales have it that the heads of giants have been mounted on the walls of Winterfell in the past (III: 906)
A hundred years ago, Skagos rose in a rebellion that lasted years. Before it was put down, a Lord of Winterfell and hundreds of his swords were killed (IV: 220)
Four hundred years before the Conquest, Osric Stark was elected Lord Commander at the age of ten, and served for sixty years. He is one of four Lord Commanders known to have been elected younger than sixteen. All of them were sons, brothers, or bastards of the Kings of the North (IV: 79-80)
The reaving of the ironborn under Lord Dagon led Beron Stark to begin gathering swords so he could drive the ironmen from his shores (TMK: 664)
As a youth, Eddard Stark would have occasionally visited the North or travelled outside of the Vale with Jon Arryn. When he reached his majority, his stays in the North were more frequent, but he would have visited the Vale often as it had become a second home to him, and Jon Arryn a second father (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)
There may be offshoots and branches of the Stark family in the North, most likely in White Harbor and Barrowton (SSM: 1)
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; these women would be known as the She-Wolves. There were a number of potential heirs, with some ten Stark children about (SSM: 1, 2, 3)

Last revised September 04, 2012
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3.2.3. Bannerhouses

House Ryswell of the Rills (I: 354. IV: 728. SSM: 1)
House Dustin (I: 354. SSM: 1)
House Hornwood (I: 476)
House Cerwyn of Castle Cerwyn (I: 476. II: 573)
By the time 12,000 men are gathered, there are perhaps 3,000 armored and mounted lances, of which 3-400 are knights (I: 476)
18,000 men, among them hedge knights, sellswords, and freeriders, march south at the gathering of the northern banners. Another fifteen hundred are brought by the Manderlys (I: 497, 502)
Any one of the lords bannermen to the Starks commands more swords than can be found on the Wall (I: 653)
House Flint of Widow's Watch (I: 679. II: 190)
The lands of the Boltons and the Hornwoods are adjoined (II: 186)
House Locke of Oldcastle (II: 190, 722)
The Cerwyn castle and lands lie half a day's ride from Winterfell (II: 190)
The Hornwood lands are forested (II: 384)
Even with more than 20,000 northmen gone away, more than 2,000 men can still be mustered in the north, and that without several lords unrepresented (II: 672, 679)
House Magnar, lords on Skagos. Magnar means lord in the Old Tongue (III: 80, 550)
The Wulls are west of the mountains along the Bay of Ice (III: 275)
The Harclays are south of the mountains in the foothills (III: 275)
The Knotts, Liddles, Norreys, and even some Flints live in the high places in the mountains (III: 275)
Lord Wull is something of a proper nobleman, but he is known chiefly as the Wull. The Knott, the Norrey, and the Liddle are the same, called lords in Winterfell but not named lords by their own folk (III: 276)
House Stout, petty lords of Barrowton (III: 548, 567. IV: 728)
House Burley has their fastness in the mountains, just as the other mountain clans (III: 566, 615)
House Condon, who may be in the service of the Cerwyns (III: 567)
Lord Commander Rodrik Flint thought to make himself King-beyond-the-Wall (III: 612)
Barrowton and the Rills are castles (III: 615)
Lord Ryswell's castle is in or near the barrowlands (III: 628)
Some say that the Night's King was a Magnar, Flint, or Norrey (III: 630)
The men of Skagos call themselves the stoneborn, but other Northmen call them Skaggs (IV: 220)
The lords of the island of Skagos have little contact with the mainland and, although in theory subject to the Starks, in practice they go largely their own way (SSM: 1)
Some of the mountain families have keeps and fastnesses large enough to be called castles, though they would be small and rude by comparison to the castles of the south (SSM: 1)
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 August 05, 2009
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3.2.3.1. The Manderlys of White Harbor

The Manderlys follow the Seven (I: 497)
The Manderlys are able to bring nearly fifteen hundred men to the gathering of Northern banners; twenty-odd knights with as many squires, two hundred lances, swordsmen, and freeriders, and the rest foot armed with spears, pikes, and tridents (I: 497)
The castle at White Harbor was raised by King Jon Stark after he drove out sea raiders from the east (I: 613)
A barge can be taken some of the way from White Harbor to Winterfell (II: 179)
Fish and other seafood are shipped in casks filled with salt and seaweed (II: 238)
White Harbor's fishing is very good (II: 238)
The Manderlys can pack a dozen barges with knights, warhorses, soldiers, and siege engines (II: 589)
King's Landing is many times larger than White Harbor (III: 694)
There are silversmiths at White Harbor (III: 837)
White Harbor is a thriving port, and thanks to that the Manderlys are the richest bannermen of the Starks (V: 53)
The Manderlys were driven from the banks of the the Mander, the great river of the Reach, a thousand years ago. It is suggested that the river takes its name from the family, rather than the other way around (TSS: 128)
House Manderly is heavily into the concept of chivalry. As the major port in the north, they have the most contact and exchange with the south and have more of a mixed population (SSM: 1)
White Harbor is one of the five cities of Westeros. It is about the same size as Gulltown, but is much smaller than Lannisport and very much smaller than King's Landing or Oldtown (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 02, 2016
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3.2.3.2. The Boltons of the Dreadfort

It is said that the Boltons hang the skins of their enemies in the Dreadfort (I: 480)
The lands of the Hornwoods and the Boltons are next to each other (II: 186)
The Boltons have a saying: "A naked man has few secrets, but a flayed man has none" (II: 530)
In ages past, certain lords of the Dreadfort had gone so far as to cloak themselves in the skins of their enemies (II: 530)
A number of Starks had been slain, flayed, and worn as cloaks in the past before the Boltons had bent the knee (II: 530)
The Boltons bent the knee to Winterfell a thousand years ago (II: 530)
Even with a force of men following their lord in the south, the Bolton garrison at the Dreadfort numbers 600 men (II: 679)
Some say the Night's King was a Bolton (III: 630)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.3. The Karstarks of Karhold

The Karstarks are able to bring nearly two thousand foot and three hundred horse to the gathering of the northern banners (I: 474)
The Karstarks are said to have Stark blood in them from hundreds of years in the past (I: 474)
The Karstarks do not look like Starks. The are big, fierce men who often wear thick beards and their hair loose past their shoulders. Their cloaks are made of the pelts of bear and seal and wolf (I: 475)
Karstark men-at-arms wears black iron halfhelms and black woolen cloaks patterned with the white sunburst of the house (I: 477)
Karhold is a strong castle (III: 108)
The Karstarks and the men about their lands tend to be big men with thick beards and long hair (III: 226)
The mounted strength of Karhold amounts to some three hundred riders and twice as many mounts (III: 228)
Lord Rickard Karstark stood with Lord Eddard Stark on the Trident (III: 231)
The Karstarks trace their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but over the centuries it became Karhold and the Karhold Starks became the Karstarks (III: 231, 232)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.4. The Mormonts of Bear Island

While Jeor and Jorah Mormont seem to follow the Faith, Jeor's father seems to have followed the old gods (I: 30, 431. II: 151)
The Mormonts are an old house, proud and honorable (I: 93)
Bear Island is poor in resources (I: 93)
There are no male heirs to Bear Island, so Maege Mormont rules and her daughter stands to inherit (I: 173)
The Mormonts have handed the Valyrian steel bastard sword Longclaw from father to son for five centuries. Its original pommel was a silver bear's head, so worn it was all but indistinguishable (I: 547, 548)
King Rodrik Stark won Bear Island in a wrestling match and gave it to the Mormonts, or so it's said (I: 613)
Bear Island was once conquered by the Iron Kings of the Iron Islands, but over the centuries it was lost to them (I: 688)
Bear Island is remote, but beautiful with its ancient trees, flowering thorn bushes, and creeks (II: 145)
The hall on Bear Island is made of huge logs, surrounded by an earthen palisade (II: 145)
Aside from a few crofters, the people of the island live along the coasts and fish the seas (II: 145)
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 against Balon Greyjoy, King Robert had a tourney held in Lannisport. Jorah Mormont won the champion's laurels and because of this received the permission of Lord Leyton Hightower to wed his daughter, Lynesse (II: 146)
It takes about a fortnight to sail from Lannisport to Bear Island (II: 146)
Bear Island is rich in trees and bears, but poor in everything else (II: 146)
All the women of Bear Island are said to be warlike she-bears, for they have needed to be. In old days the ironmen would come raiding in their longboats, or wildlings from the Frozen Shore. The men would be away fishing, like as not, so their wives had to defend themselves and their children or be carried off (III: 522)
There is a carving on the gate of the Mormont keep, a woman in a bearskin with a child in one arm suckling at her breast and a battleaxe in the other (III: 522)
Jeor Mormont is the 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch (III: 612) Bear Island was ruled by the Woodfoots before the ironmen came (III: 630)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.5. The Tallharts of Torrhen’s Square

At least some of the Tallharts follow the Faith (I: 500)
The Tallharts have their seat at Torrhen's Square (II: 189)
The walls of Torrhen's Square are made of stone, thirty feet high with square towers at each corner and a square keep within (II: 399)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.6. The Umbers of Last Hearth

The Umber lands are along the shore of the Bay of Seals (II: 188)
The Umber lands are rich in pines and old oaks (II: 188)
The seat of the Umbers is named Last Hearth (III: 274)
The Umbers and their people are mostly east of the kingsroad, but they graze their sheep into the high meadows of the mountains during the summer (III: 275)
The Umbers were part of the host that defeated the brother Kings-beyond-the-Wall, Gendel and Gorne, when they broke out past the Wall some 3,000 years ago (III: 300)
Wildling raids have increased over the last years as the Watch has grown weaker, and so the places nearest the Wall have been raided so often that people have moved further south into the mountains or into the Umber lands east of the Kingsroad (III: 453)
The Umber lands are raided by wildlings on occasion, but not as often as those who live nearer to the Wall in the Gift (III: 453)
Some say the Night's King was an Umber (III: 630)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.7. The Glovers of Deepwood Motte

Deepwood Motte is south of tidal flats and north of Sea Dragon Point (II: 290)
Deepwood Motte is north by northwest of Winterfell on the other side of the wolfswood (II: 531)
Deepwood Motte is a wooden keep set on a hill (II: 589)
Deepwood Motte is near enough to the sea that supplies and men can reach it when there is need (II: 589)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.8. The Reeds of Greywater Watch and the Crannogmen

Crannogmen of the Neck are seen disdainfully by some, called frogeaters, mudmen, and bog devils (II: 240. IV: 169)
The crannogmen are seen as thieves and cravens (II: 240)
Crannogmen use nets, bronze knives, frog spears, and round leather shields (II: 241)
It has been hundreds and thousands of years since the crannogmen swore their oaths of fealty to the Starks (II: 241)
The fealty oath of the Reeds to the Starks of Winterfell: "To Winterfell we pledge the faith of Greywater. Hearth and heart and harvest we yield up to you, my lord. Our swords and spears and arrows are yours to command. Grant mercy to our weak, help to our helpless, and justice to all, and we shall never fail you." This is spoken together by two people (such as children of Lord Reed) and then one speaks, "I swear it by earth and water," while the other says after "I swear it by bronze and iron." Finally, they finish together with "We swear it by ice and fire" (II: 241)
When visiting important personages, crannogmen bring gifts of fish and frog and fowl (II: 241)
The crannogmen dwell among the bogs of the Neck and seldom leave their lands (II: 241, 242)
The crannogmen are a poor people, fishers and frog-hunters who live in homes made of thatch and woven reeds which are set on floating islands deep in the swamps (II: 242)
It is said that the crannogmen are cowardly and fight with poisoned weapons, preferring to hide from foes rather than give open battle (II: 242. IV: 169)
Howland Reed had been one of Eddard Stark's staunchest companions during the war against the Targaryens (II: 242)
The crannogmen eat frogs, fish, lizard-lions, and all manner of fowl (II: 242)
Women are known to fight amongst the crannogmen using nets and spears (II: 319)
There are no knights at Greywater Watch, nor master-at-arms or maesters (II: 319)
Ravens can't find Greywater Watch because it moves (II: 319)
The crannogmen say a person has the greensight if they dream prophetic dreams which always come true (moss-green eyes may come with it) (II: 320)
A greenseer sometimes dreams as other people, but the green dreams are different (II: 320)
A greenseers dream takes the form of metaphor; for instance, a winged creature bound with grey stone chains to the earth might represent a person who has that creature as an emblem who is chained by preconceptions from achieving his full potential (II: 320)
There are foolish stories which say that the crannogmen have a boggy smell like frogs and trees and scummy water. Moss grows under their arms instead of hair, and they can live with nothing to eat but mud and breathe swampwater (II: 534)
Histories say the crannogmen grew close to the children of the forest when the greenseers tried to bring the waters down upon the Neck (II: 534-535)
All crannogmen are small (III: 104)
The hunters of the crannogmen are said to be able to breathe mud and fly through trees (III: 107, 108)
There are no knights in the Neck, though it's said that there are many dead ones under it in the bogs (III: 278)
Andals and ironmen, Freys and other fools, all have set out to conquer Greywater. Not one of them could find it (III: 278)
The Reed children tell a tale from their father, who figures large in it, about the Knight of the Laughing Tree who appeared at the great tournament at Harrenhal in the year of the false spring. Lyanna Stark and her siblings figure largely (III: 279)
The crannogmen say they have magics that allow them to breathe mud and run on leaves, on change earth to water and water to earth with no more than a word. They can talk to trees, weave words, and make castles appear and disappear as well, or so they say (III: 279)
The crannogmen use little skin boats that are light enough to carry with ease (III: 279, 280)
The crannogmen rarely ride horses, and their hands are made for oars rather than lances (III: 282)
There are ways through the Neck that are not on any map, known only to the crannogmen, such as narrow trails between the bogs and wet roads through the reeds that only boats can follow (III: 526)
The old tongue of the First Men does not seem to be known in the Neck (III: 626)
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)
Howland Reed fought with the northern host throughout Robert's rebellion (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 05, 2009
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3.3. The Night’s Watch

The horses tend to be small, rough-coated garrons (I: 2)
The men of Night's Watch wear only black (I: 2, 44, etc.)
The Night's Watch has fewer than 1,000 men (I: 20)
Night's Watch is a Sworn Brotherhood (I: 56)
The Night's Watch is largely made up of the misfits of the kingdoms: peasants, debtors, poachers, rapers, thieves, and bastards. Only a few of the noble and knightly houses have members at Night's Watch (I: 104)
Most recruits are seventeen or older (I: 149)
Recruits of the Watch wear roughspun black (I: 149)
The Lord Commander leads the Night's Watch, with the chief Maester, First Ranger, and others as high officers under him (I: 150)
On the Wall, a man gets only what he earns (I: 150)
The men of Night's Watch puts aside their families when they swear their vows, making the others members his brothers (I: 150)
Foods from the sea, such as crabs, come from Eastwatch in barrels packed with snow (I: 171)
The Night's Watch received some knights after the War of the Usurper, as Tywin Lannister gave those who fought for the Targaryens at King's Landing the choice of losing their heads or taking the black (I: 172)
The Watch has some six hundred men at Castle Black, two hundred at the Shadow Tower, and even fewer at Eastwatch. A bare third of them are fighting men (I: 174)
Once the Watch spent the summers building, and each Lord Commander raised the Wall higher. Now it is all the Watch can do to stay alive (I: 174)
The Night's Watch believes a Long Night will fall as it did 8,000 years before, and only it will stand between the Seven Kingdoms and a darkness out of the north (I: 175, 547)
A man on sentry duty atop the wall has a full mile assigned to them (I: 177)
When recruits are pronounced ready to take the vows, a special dinner is made for them (I: 372)
Every man in the Watch walks the wall, and all are expected to bare steel in its defense, but the rangers are the true fighting men of the Watch (I: 372)
The order of the builders provide masons and carpenters, miners, and woodsmen (I: 372, 373)
The order of the stewards keep the Watch alive. They hunt and farm, tend horses, milk cows, gather firewood, cook meals, make clothing, and bring supplies from the south (among other like things) (I: 376)
The Night's Watch are called the black knights of the Wall in songs (I: 396)
The vows of new members of the Night's Watch are given at sunset as the night gathers. (I: 431)
All crimes and debts are forgiven and forgotten, all ties of loyalty and grudges are washed away, and old loves and old wrongs are put away when a man becomes a Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch. He begins life anew (I: 431)
The Lord Commander has a personal steward who serves his needs. By custom he also serves as his squire (I: 433, 434, 655)
The vow of Night's Watch (I: 435, 436)
When men return from ranging beyond the Wall, watchmen on top of the Wall sound a great horn to hail their return if they are seen. (I: 467)
When Aegon slew Black Harren, Harren's brother was Lord Commander of the Watch and had 10,000 swords at his command; but he did not march (I: 553)
When the Andals crossed the narrow sea and swept away the kingdoms of the First Men, the sons of the fallen kings held to their vows (I: 553)
A stranger wearing black is viewed with cold suspicion in every village and holdfast north of the Neck, on the assumption that he is a member of Night's Watch who has forsaken his vows (I: 646, 647)
The men of the Wall call the whores of Mole Town "buried treasures" and sometimes brothers of the Watch sneak off to go "mining." That too is oathbreaking, but no one seems to care (I: 648)
The vow of Night's Watch: Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come (I: 651. II: 691)
Any one of the lords bannermen to the Starks commands more swords than can be found on the Wall (I: 653)
Men of the Watch going south to gather more recruits also gather supplies such as hides and cloth, pig iron, ravens, books and paper and ink, oil, chests of medicines and spices, and bales of sourleaf (II: 23)
Pepper is not among the products that gets to the Wall (II: 62)
Important books and records used to be copied regularly, with some of the oldest probably having been copied more than half a hundred times (II: 70)
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)
Among the brotherhood of Night's Watch, there is an unspoken pact that men do not discuss too deeply the going-ons in the realm when they have anything to do with kin and old loyalties (II: 74)
There was a time when a sworn brother of the Watch was feasted from Dorne to Winterfell and high lords called it an honor to shelter him under his own roof (II: 103)
The "ranger roads" are game trails and stream beds which the brothers of the Watch who are ranging north use to lead them deeper into the north beyond the Wall (II: 153)
Some wildlings have actually aided the rangers in the past (II: 260, 261)
Rangers have been known to lay with wildling women in the past (II: 261)
The Night's Watch is not adverse to accepting orphans and boys from the wildlings to raise to the black, and has done so in the past (II: 274-275, 558)
All the wildlings hosts that have attacked southwards have broken their strength on the Wall or by the power of Winterfell beyond (II: 276)
A single horn blast is used to herald arriving brothers of the Watch. Two horn blasts seem to warn of attack (II: 457)
"Rayder" appears to be the last name given at the Wall for men who were wildling-born but raised to the black (II: 558)
The wildlings do not spare brothers of the Night's Watch, unless they break their oaths and prove it by cutting their black cloaks, swearing on a father's grave, cursing the Watch and the Lord Commander, and other like things (II: 692)
A thousand years ago, a Lord Commander said that the Watch are dressed in black because they aren't expected to survive their duties (III: 11)
Three horn blasts have not been sounded in thousands of years (III: 14)
Three horn blasts warn of the Others approaching (III: 14)
The Lord Commander some 10 or 12 years ago was a Qorgyle (III: 82)
There is more commerce between the black brothers and the free folk that many realize or admit (III: 83)
Rangers often share skins for warmth (III: 169)
Two short horn blasts followed by a long one is a call to mount up (III: 204)
A black brother spoke at the great tournament at Harrenhal, asking for knights to join the Night's Watch (III: 281)
Each patrol on the Wall is made up of four men, two rangers and two builders. The builders note cracks, melting, and other structual problems, while the rangers look for signs of foes. The patrols ride mules because of their surefootedness, specially trained for the duty (III: 298)
One patrol in four follow the base of the Wall to search for cracks in the foundation of the ice or signs of tunneling (III: 298)
Lord Commander Qorgyle used to send patrols out every third day from Castle Black to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, and every second day from Castle Black to the Shadow Tower, but the Watch had more men in his day (III: 298)
Lord Commander Mormont varys the number of patrols and the days of their departure, to make it more difficult for the wildlings to know their comings and goings. Sometimes a larger force will be sent to one of the abandoned castles for a fortnight or a moon's turn as well, which was suggested by the First Ranger, Benjen Stark (III: 298, 299)
The Watch, with the King in the North and the Umbers, trapped the brother kings Gendel and Gorne some 3,000 years ago. Gorne was slain, and the Watch and the rest of the Seven Kingdoms believe that Gendel was slain as well, although the wildlings claim differently (III: 300)
The Night's Watch must once have known about the effectiveness of dragonglass against the Others, but it has forgotten much in the hundreds and thousands of years since it was founded (III: 373)
At the funeral for a black brother, his fellows finish their eulogies with the words, "And now his watch is ended" (III: 375)
The New Gift belongs to the Night's Watch, as does Brandon's Gift which lies north of it. It's said that Brandon the Builder gave all the land south of the Wall to the black brothers, to a distance of twenty-five leagues, for their sustenance and support, but some maesters say that it was some other Brandon, not the Builder (III: 452, 453. SSM: 1)
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)
Wildling raids have increased over the last years as the Watch has grown weaker, and so the places nearest the Wall have been raided so often that people have moved further south into the mountains or into the Umber lands east of the Kingsroad (III: 453)
Brandon's Gift had been farmed for years by the Watch, but as it dwindled there were fewer hands to plow the fields, tend the bees, and plant the orchards, so the wild had reclaimed many a field and hall (III: 461. SSM: 1)
The New Gift had villages and holdfasts whose taxes, rendered in goods and labor, helped feed and clothe the black brothers, but many of those stand abandoned as well (III: 461. V: 53. SSM: 1)
The black brothers make hard enemies but good customers for ships with the right cargo (III: 608)
Lord Commander Runcel Hightower tried to bequeathe the Watch to his bastard son (III: 612)
Lord Commander Rodrik Flint thought to make himself King-beyond-the-Wall (III: 612)
Tristan Mudd, Mad Marq Rankenfell, and the bastard Robin Hill were Lord Commanders who nearly destroyed the Watch when they forgot their vows in favor of their pride and ambition (III: 612. SSM: 1)
600 years ago, the commanders at Snowgate and the Nightfort went to war against each other. When their Lord Commander sought to intervene, they joined forces to murder him. The Stark in Winterfell had to take a hand, and their heads (III: 612)
The reason the strongholds of the Watch have been made without fortifications to the south is so that they are not defensible should any members of the Watch go rogue (III: 612)
Jeor Mormont is the 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch (III: 612)
The Nightfort figures in some of the scariest stories of the North, although doubtlessly many of them are false. It was there that Night's King reigned before his name was wiped from the memory of man, and where the Rat Cook served the Andal king his prince-and-bacon pie, where the 79 sentinels stood their watch, where brave young Danny Flint had been raped and murdered, where King Sherrit had called down his curse of the Andals of old, where the apprentice boys had faced the thing that came in the night, where blind Symeon Star-Eyes had seen the Hellhounds fight, and where Mad Axe had walked the yards and climbed the towers to butcher his brothers in the dark (III: 624, 625)
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)
Seventy-nine deserters once left the Nightfort to become outlaws. One of them was Lord Ryswell's youngest son, so when they reached the barrowlands they sought shelter at his castle, but he took them captive and returned them to the Nightfort. The Lord Commander had holes hewn in the top of the Wall and he put the deserters in them, sealing them alive in the ice with spears and horns so that they could face north; they had left their posts in life, so in death their watch went on forever. Years later, when Lord Ryswell was old and dying, he had himself carried to the Nightfort so he could take the black and stand beside the son he had loved (III: 628)
The Night's King had been the thirteenth man to lead the Night's Watc (III: 629).
The legends say that the Night's King was a warrior without fear, and when he saw a woman atop the Wall with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars, he chased her and loved her though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well. He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years he ruled until finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was discovered that he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of him were destroyed and his very name was forbidden (III: 629, 630)
The Night's Watch selects its Lord Commander by vote. A candidate needs two-thirds of the votes of the Sworn Brothers to be given that station (III: 860)
Since most brothers are unlettered, tradition had it that voting was done with tokens dropped into big iron kettles. The barrels of tokens are hidden by a drape so that no one's vote could be seen. Men are allowed to vote for a friend or even whole garrisons who cannot make it to the choosing (III: 862)
Seashells, stones, copper pennies, arrowheads, nails, and acorns are among the tokens used in the choosing (III: 862)
There was once a choosing that lasted near two years and seven hundred votes (III: 862)
The Lord Commander of the Watch has been chosen by the vote of the Sworn Brothers he would lead ever since the Wall was raised thousands of years ago (III: 882)
The Gifts were given to the Night's Watch in perpetuity, meaning that they cannot be lawfully seized, attainted, or taken (III: 883)
Any Sworn Brother may offer up any other Sworn Brother's name for consideration in the choosing of the Lord Commander (III: 896)
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)
The Night's Watch has long emphasized sword training over the bow, a relic of days when one in every ten members of the Watch had been a knight. Now the figure is one in a hundred (IV: 74)
Four hundred years before the Conquest, Osric Stark was elected Lord Commander at the age of ten, and served for sixty years. He is one of four Lord Commanders known to have been elected younger than sixteen. All of them were sons, brothers, or bastards of the Kings of the North (IV: 79-80)
It is recorded that the children of the forest used to give the Night's Watch a hundred daggers of dragonglass each year during the Age of Heroes (IV: 80)
The Night's Watch keeps several galleys at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, both larger vessels capable of crossing the narrow sea and lean fighting vessels (IV: 217)
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)
It's said a dozen Lord Commanders came and went while Maester Aemon served on the Wall, beginning with his brother Aegon's reign (IV: 519)
A boy of a little less than a man's sixteen years is completely bound by taking the oaths of the Watch, his minority providing no loopholes. The Night's Watch would not administer the oath to a youth several years from his majority, however (SSM: 1)
Many transactions at Mole's Town are paid for by barter, but there is coin to be found on the Wall although not as much as in old days when the Gifts were more thoroughly worked and taxed (SSM: 1)
There have been a few cases of men of the Watch having their vows released, but they are very rare, requiring the proper authority (SSM: 1, 2)
Not all recruits to the Watch have gone dociley (SSM: 1)
The wildlings do not hate northmen as much as they hate the Night's Watch (SSM: 1)
Maesters serving on the Wall take the oaths of the Night's Watch (SSM: 1)
Because the taxes it collects are in kind, the Watch is rich in foods like turnips, but poor in coin (V: 53)

Last revised February 02, 2016
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3.3.1. The Wall and Night’s Watch Castles

The Wall is said to be weeping if the temperature in above freezing, so that the ice melts (I: 4)
The Wall has stood some 8,000 years (I: 37)
The Night's Watch is a sworn brotherhood (I: 45)
Even a bastard may rise high in the Watch (I: 56)
There are no inns at the Wall (I: 100)
Equipment for weapons practice is kept in the armory of Castle Black (I: 149)
The haunted forest is north of Castle Black and the Wall (I: 150)
Castle Black's Common Hall is a great timbered structure (I: 15. V: 51)
A tunnel from Castle Black is large enough for men to lead garrons through. It exits north of the Wall (I: 150)
Castle Black has no godswood, only a small sept (I: 150)
The Wall is nearly 700 feet high, made of ice that can be seen for miles in the distance which seems grey or blue depending on weather. The top is wide enough for a dozen mounted knights to ride abreast (I: 154)
The tallest tower in Castle Black is a third the height of the Wall (I: 154)
The Wall has huge cranes and catapults at its top (I: 154)
Castle Black has no walls to defend it to west, east, or south. The Wall stands to the north. It has timber keeps and stone towers. (I: 154)
Castle Black has a King's Tower for honored guests, although a king has not visited the Watch in a hundred years (I: 155)
The old stables of Castle Black are unused. Only the east stables are (I: 156)
Hardin's Tower leans and has broken battlements. It is abandoned, but no one cares who uses it (I: 156. V: 51)
Once Castle Black quartered five thousand fighting men with all their horses, servants, and equipment. It now holds only a tenth that number, and parts of it are falling into ruin (I: 156)
The Night's Watch once boasted nineteen castles along the hundred leagues of the Wall, but only three remain in use (I: 156)
Eastwatch-by-the-Sea is easternmost of the great keeps, and the Shadow Tower is at the western end of the Wall, hard by the mountains. Castle Black sits between them (I: 156)
The Commander's Keep is where the Lord Commander keeps his rooms (I: 157)
The Wall is three hundred miles long (I: 174)
There are fisherfolk near Eastwatch (I: 175)
The fisherfolk near Eastwatch claim to have seen white walkers on the shore (I: 175)
Wooden stairs ascend the south face of the Wall at Castle Black, anchored by huge beams frozen into it. The great switchback stair claws and climbs its way up the face like a drunken thunderbolt (I: 176. III: 613)
An iron cage besides Castle Black's well is connected to a winch. It is used to take supplies and men up to the top of the Wall, with enough room for ten men to be lifted at a time (I: 176. III: 715)
Mole's Town is a little village half a league south of Castle Black (I: 176)
Besides the crane at the top of the Wall at Castle Black is a small warming shed for the men on watch (I: 177. III: 778)
Crushed stone is spread atop the Wall to provide grip for those who walk it. After a time the gravel sinks into the ice and must be replaced (I: 177)
A great catapult, high as a city wall, is on top of the Wall at Castle Black. It's throwing arm had been removed for repairs and then forgotten (I: 177)
The forest north of the Wall is never allowed closer than half a mile (I: 179)
Over the decades, the places which the abandoned citadels once manned have had the forest creeping in nearer to the Wall (I: 179)
Once the order of the builders quarried huge blocks of ice from frozen lakes in the haunted forest and dragged them south to raise the Wall higher (I: 373)
It is all the builders can do to ride from Eastwatch to the Shadow Tower and repair any cracks (I: 373)
The maester at Castle Black has his apartments in a stout wooden keep beneath the rookery (I: 374. III: 618)
Beyond the Wall, in the haunted forest, there are groves of carven weirwoods left by the Children. Men who follow the Old Gods swear their vows there. One is half a league from Castle Black, a rough ring of nine trees (I: 432)
The Wall has no gates anywhere, simply a few tunnels cut through it that are barred at several points by heavy iron bars secured by massive chains that must be unlocked (I: 434)
There are storerooms chiselled into the Wall at its base, used to keep grain and meat and sometimes beer (I: 468)
The First Men built the Wall (I: 654)
Thousands of books are kept in vaults under Castle Black (II: 69)
Some of the records kept are fairly mundane, such as inventories or bills of sale (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 library shelves are so closely spaced that people must walk in single file (II: 71)
The vault the library of Castle Black is kept in opens into one of the tunnels called wormwalks, winding subterranean passages that link the keeps and towers of Castle Black. The wormwalks are seldom used in the summer, but in winter with fifty foot-high snowdrifts the wormwalks are the only way to keep the castle together (II: 71, 72)
Though the Watch raised nineteen castles along the hundred leagues of the Wall, they had never manned more than seventeen at one time (II: 462. III: 456)
Greyguard is one of the abandoned castles, now much collapsed, and is nearer to the Shadow Tower. The Long Barrow is another castle, nearer to Eastwatch (II: 462)
Stonedoor is another abandoned castle that's towards the west and the Shadow Tower, and apparently in better condition than Greyguard. (II: 462)
Icemark and Deep Lake are other castles (II: 462)
The Wall is apparently wider at its base than at its top. It's so wide that it'd take a hundred men year to cut through it using picks and axes (II: 462)
The gates that guard the tunnels that lead through the Wall are frozen shut in times of danger (II: 463)
The ninteen castles of the Watch, from east to west: Westwatch-by-the-Bridge, the Shadow Tower, Sentinel Stand, Greyguard, Stonedoor, Hoarfrost Hill, Icemark, the Nightfort, Deep Lake, Queensgate, Castle Black, Oakenshield, Woodswatch-by-the-Pool, Sable Hall, Rimegate, the Long Barrow, the Torches, Greenguard, and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea (III: Map 3)
Brandon's Gift and the New Gift stretch from the Wall to fifty leagues south of it (III: 83, 452, 453)
Each patrol on the Wall is made up of four men, two rangers and two builders. The builders note cracks, melting, and other structual problems, while the rangers look for signs of foes. The patrols ride mules because of their surefootedness, specially trained for the duty as they are often ridden on ungravelled portions of the Wall (III: 298)
Aside from the Wall around Castle Black, much of it has not been gravelled for many years (III: 298)
One patrol in four follow the base of the Wall to search for cracks in the foundation of the ice or signs of tunneling (III: 298)
Arson Iceaxe was a wildling who had tunneled halfway through the Wall when he was found by rangers from the Nightfort. They did not trouble to disturb him at his digging, only sealed the way behind with ice and stone and snow (III: 298)
There is a vast network of caves near the Wall and the abandoned castles of Greyguard and Stonedoor. It's said one of the passages even opens south of the Wall that the wildlings call Gorne's Way (III: 297, 300)
The Wall is often said to be 700 feet high, but in fact that's only a rough approximation as it can actually stand both higher and lower in places, coming to as high as 800 or even 900 feet from the ground but with as much as a third of that height made from earth and stone. This is because Brandon the Builder laid his huge foundation blocks along the heights whenever feasible, using cliffs and rugged hills (III: 336, 337)
The Wall has battlements (III: 336)
The Wall is very straight and uniform east of Castle Black, but it winds, dips, and climbs along the wild and rugged terrain to the west (III: 337)
Once brothers of the Watch used to go out every day to cut back trees coming too close to the Wall, but those days were long gone and the forest grows right up to the ice at many points (III: 337)
In the Seven Kingdoms, it's said that the Wall marks the end of the world (III: 337)
The Wall is not smooth because of the ravages of wind and melting, and imperfect placement. Horizontal ledges and vertical chimneys mark such imperfect joins (III: 339)
The Wall is thicker at the base than at the top, so thick that the gates are more like tunnels through the ice (III: 456)
Some call the abandoned castles of the Watch "the ghost castles" (III: 456)
The gates passing through the Wall have been sealed with ice and stone wherever castles have been abandoned (III: 456)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising the Wall (III: 461)
Greyguard has been abandoned for two hundred years. A section of the huge stone steps that climbed the Wall there collapsed a century before (III: 464)
One of the castles on the Wall was named after Good Queen Alysanne, being called Queensgate. It was once Snowgate (III: 468)
The Flint Barracks at Castle Black (III: 547)
The Commander's Keep is also called the Lord Commander's Tower (III: 547)
Weatherback Ridge is near to Castle Black and is within view of the kingsroad. A beacon burning there can be seen from the castle (III: 553, 610)
The galleys of Eastwatch patrol of the Bay of Seals in part to catch smugglers who trade weapons to the wildlings (III: 608)
The old Flint Barrack roof is creneled (III: 611)
The King's Tower is not the tallest one at Castle Black, though it's 100 feet tall. That honor goes to the Lance, which is high, slim, and crumbling (III: 612, 618)
The strongest tower at Castle Black is the Tower of Guards (III: 612)
The King's Tower at Castle Black overlooks the gate and the foot of the wooden stair leading up the Wall (III: 612)
The reason the strongholds of the Watch have been made without fortifications to the south is so that they are not defensible should any members of the Watch go rogue (III: 612)
The Tower of Guards is more than a bowshot away from the King's Tower (III: 617)
The old stables of Castle Black are some fifty yards away from the King's Tower (III: 617)
The east stables of Castle Black are still in use (III: 618)
There's a vegetable garden at Castle Black (III: 618)
Castle Black's yard is made with flagstones (III: 618)
There's an old dry well at Castle Black (III: 618)
The Silent Tower at Castle Black (III: 618)
The north parapet of the King's Tower looks down on the gate at Castle Black (III: 618)
The Nightfort figures in some of the scariest stories of the North, although doubtlessly many of them are false. It was there that Night's King reigned before his name was wiped from the memory of man, and where the Rat Cook served the Andal king his prince-and-bacon pie, where the 79 sentinels stood their watch, where brave young Danny Flint had been raped and murdered, where King Sherrit had called down his curse of the Andals of old, where the apprentice boys had faced the thing that came in the night, where blind Symeon Star-Eyes had seen the Hellhounds fight, and where Mad Axe had walked the yards and climbed the towers to butcher his brothers in the dark (III: 624, 625)
The Nightfort has been abandoned for the last 200 years (III: 625)
The Nightfort's kitchen was domed, though now a twisted white weirwood has pushed its way through the dome (III: 625)
The gate the Nightfort guards has been sealed since the black brothers had abandoned it and departed for Deep Lake. Its iron portcullis has been lowered and the chains to raise it were carried off, and the tunnel was packed with stone and rubble frozen together until they were as impenetrable as the Wall itself (III: 625)
Only at the Nightfort were the steps up the Wall actually cut from the ice (III: 627)
The Nightfort was the first castle on the Wall (III: 627, 628)
The castles after the Nightfort had steps of wood or stone, or long ramps of gravel and earth that went up the wall, because it was found that the ice steps of the Nightfort were too treacherous (III: 627)
The steps at the Nightfort have melted and re-frozen many times and so are smaller, smoother, and rounder than they once were. Towards the very top, they're little more than icy knobs (III: 627)
The Nightfort is twice as old as Castle Black (III: 628)
The Nightfort was the largest castle on the Wall (III: 628)
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)
It's said that the ghosts of the seventy-nine sentinels haunt the Nightfort (III: 628)
Seventy-nine deserters once left the Nightfort to become outlaws. One of them was Lord Ryswell's youngest son, so when they reached the barrowlands they sought shelter at his castle, but he took them captive and returned them to the Nightfort. The Lord Commander had holes hewn in the top of the Wall and he put the deserters in them, sealing them alive in the ice with spears and horns so that they could face north; they had left their posts in life, so in death their watch went on forever. Years later, when Lord Ryswell was old and dying, he had himself carried to the Nightfort so he could take the black and stand beside the son he had loved (III: 628)
The Nightfort has a bell tower with no bells, a rookery with no birds, a brewhouse with a vault beneath filled with huge oaken casks, a library with collapsed bins and shelves and no books, a dungeon with cells enough to hold 500 captives but the rusted bars are brittle, one crumbling wall of what was once the great hall, a bathhouse that is sinking into the ground, and a huge thornbush that dominates the practice yard outside the armory (III: 629)
The armory and the forge still stand at the Nightfort (III: 629)
Looking north from the Wall at the Nightfort, one can see the haunted forest, wilds hills as far as the eyes can see, and a lake (III: 629)
The legends say that the Night's King was a warrior without fear, and when he saw a woman atop the Wall with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars, he chased her and loved her though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well. He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years he ruled until finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was discovered that he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of him were destroyed and his very name was forbidden (III: 629, 630)
There's a huge central well in the Night Fort's octagon-shaped kitchen besides which grows the tall weirwood which has pushed its way through the slate floor. The well is some twelve feet across and has steps circling down into the darkness (III: 630)
There is a hidden gate as old as the Wall at the Nightfort, called the Black Gate, which only a man of the Night's Watch who has said his vows can open. It is set deep in a wall of the well at the center of the kitchens and is made of white weirwood with a face on it. A glow seems to come from the wood, like milk and moonlight, but very faintly. The face is old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken, its mouth and eyes closed and its cheeks sunken, its brow withered, and its chin sagging. (III: 635, 638)
The Wall is more than just ice and stone. There are old spells woven into it, strong enough to keep creatures of a magical nature from passing it (III: 636. SSM: 1)
When someone approaches the Black Gate, the eyes open. They are white and blind, and then door asks, "Who are you?" A man of the Night Watch must repeat a part of his vows. The door will open then, saying, "Then pass", and its lips will open wider and wider still until nothing remains but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles (III: 638)
Water on the upper lip of the gate is strangely warm and salty as a tear (III: 638)
Fire can be had on top of the wall, in iron baskets on poles taller than a man (III: 716)
Attempts to breach the Wall with fire fails, because the icemelt quenches the flames (III: 717)
The gate through the Wall at Castle Black is a crooked tunnel through the ice, smaller than any castle gate and so narrow that rangers must lead their horses through single file. Three iron grates close the inner passage, each locked and chained and protected by a murder hole. The outer door is of old oak, nine inches thick and studded with iron (III: 717)
The Shadow Tower has its own maester (III: 781)
The Grey Keep and the Shieldhall at Castle Black have stood empty for many years (III: 856)
Eastwatch-by-the-Sea has its own maester (III: 889)
Ser Denys Mallister has commanded the Shadow Tower for some 33 years (III: 889)
The armory at Castle Black has a back entrance, where one can take steep stone steps to the wormways that link the keeps and towers below the earth. It is only a short walk to the bathhouse where there are tubs of cold and hot water (III: 892)
Castle Black has a lichyard beside the eastern road (IV: 83, 84)
There are no towns or inns in the shadow of the Wall (IV: 84)
Queensgate and Oakenshield are ruinous (V: 49)
The Nightfort is in such a ruinous state that it would take the Watch at least half a year to make it habitable (V: 55)
Great lore raised the Wall, and great spells are locked beneath its ice (V: 59)
No army could go west around the Wall because of the mountains and a deep river gorge. Only small groups of raiders ever filter through (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 02, 2016
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3.4. The Wildlings

Wildlings are executed if caught south of the Wall (I: 12)
The wildlings are seen as cruel and primitive, killers and thieves and slavers (I: 12)
The wildlings speak in fear of the white walkers, which some of them are fighting (I: 338)
The wildlings name themselves the Free Folk (I: 484)
The wildlings are known to enter the Seven Kingdoms by entering the mountains west of the Shadow Tower and taking high, perilous passes south (I: 652)
Wildlings can and do scale the Wall to enter the south (II: 54. III: 83)
A typical wildling village has small, one-room houses made of unmortared stone (II: 150. V: 65)
The villagers of Whitetree put the burnt remains of their dead inside of the mouth of their carved weirwood (II: 151)
The wildlings burn their dead (II: 151)
Wildlings sometimes use little boats to steal down past the wall, crossing the Bay of Seals (II: 188)
Some wildlings have actually aided the rangers in the past (II: 260, 261)
There are wildlings who believe the Others are gods, calling them the cold gods in the night and white shadows; they give up animals and even children to appease them when 'the white cold' comes (II: 271)
Not even wildlings dare live in the Frostfangs during the winter (II: 374)
There are thousands of wildlings (II: 374)
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)
The wildlings call the Others the white walkers (II: 381)
The wildlings keep thralls (II: 458)
Warrior women are called spearwives amongst the wildlings (II: 542)
The wildlings appear to consider the bastard name of Snow evil (II: 542)
All the wildlings know the songs of the old King-beyond-the-Wall Bael the Bard, which in general have maids falling in love with him all the time (II: 544-545)
Men of the Night's Watch who have the misfortune to be captured rather than killed in battle tend to be killed slowly (II: 546)
The wildlings have many songs of their own (II: 558)
The Night's Watch is not adverse to accepting orphans and boys from the wildlings to raise to the black, and has done so in the past (II: 274-275, 558)
"Rayder" appears to be the last name given at the Wall for men who were wildling-born but raised to the black (II: 558)
The wildlings have horses (II: 560)
Mammoths appear in a wildling army (II: 561)
The wildlings do not spare brothers of the Night's Watch, unless they break their oaths and prove it by cutting their black cloaks, swearing on a father's grave, cursing the Watch and the Lord Commander, and other like things (II: 692)
Some wildlings use hounds (II: 695)
Wildlings use crude round shields of skin stretched over wicker, painting them with figures such as skulls and bones, serpents, bear claws, twisted demonic faces, and severed heads (II: 695. III: 617, 834)
Some wildlings have crude helms of wood and boiled leather or sewn sheepskins, while others use bows of wood and horn which are outranged by yew longbows but can seemingly shoot an arrow as high as seven hundred feet (II: 695-696. III: 721, 722)
Some wildlings even use weapons such as stone axes and flails (II: 695-696)
The only metal armor that wildlings wear are bits and pieces looted from dead rangers. (II: 695)
Wildlings do not mine nor smelt and there are few smiths and fewer forges north of the Wall (II: 695)
Wildling horses are surefooted (II: 695)
The wildlings cast runes (II: 696)
Even chiefs are argued with by lesser wildlings when a decision needs to be made (II: 698)
It's a rare thing to find a dozen mounted wildlings (III: 3)
The wildlings have oxen, mules, and horses (III: 11)
Wildling weapons are more often made of stone and bone than steel (III: 11)
The wildlings have wayns, carts, and sleds (III: 11, 77)
Wildlings use fire-hardened spears and lances on foot or horseback (III: 76)
Some wildlings have armor made from bronze scales sewn on to leather (III: 79)
The Thenns are more well armed and armored than most wildlings, with bronze helms, axes of bronze and a few axes of chipped stone, short stabbing spears with leaf-shaped heads, shirts sewn with bronze discs, and plain unadorned shields of black boiled leather with bronze rims and bosses (III: 79, 297, 469, 470, 548, 617-619)
The wildlings have maps, either stolen or made by themselves (III: 79)
The land of Thenn has a lord, whom they name Magnar ("lord" in the Old Tongue of the First Men). He is considered more a god than a man by his people (III: 80, 171)
Wildlings do not name their "Your Grace". Most simply refer to them by name without title or style (III: 82)
The wildlings have no trained ravens (III: 82)
There is more commerce between the black brothers and the free folk that many realize or admit (III: 83)
The guest right protects a guest who has eaten his host's food from harm, at least for the length of the stay. The laws of hospitality as old as the First Men (III: 83)
The wildlings occasionally scavage items that wash up on the Frozen Shore, sometimes including items from exotic lands such as silk from Asshai (III: 84)
Most wildling men wear beards (III: 167)
Wildling men are expected to be quite forceful with women, going so far as stealing them. The women, in turn, are expected to put up a fight (III, 169, 171)
The wildlings ride with whatever leader they please (III: 169)
Red hair is rare among the wildlings. They prize it and consider it lucky, saying it's kissed by fire (III: 170)
Wildlings ride mammoths, putting tall wooden towers on their backs (III: 170)
A wildling woman pregnant with a child she does not want will find a woods witch to make her a cup of moon tea (III: 171, 913)
The wildlings have no laws. They steal endlessly from each other, and have little interest in marriage (III: 171)
Wildlings live throughout the northern lands beyond the Wall, from the furthest reaches of the haunted forests to the hidden valleys of the Frostfangs, and even stranger places (III: 172)
There are wildlings from the Frozen Shore who ride in chariots made of walrus bones pulled by packs of huge, white savage dogs (III: 172, 720)
Terrible ice-river clans who are said to be cannibals (III: 172)
Cave dwellers with their faced dyed blue and purple and green (III: 172)
The little Hornfoot men trot along in the freezing cold on snow-covered ground, their feet bare but their soles hard as boiled leather (III: 172, 894)
More than half the wildlings have never seen the Wall, and most of those have not a single word of the Common Tongue (III: 172)
There are songs in the Old Tongue among the wildlings, and they make for strange and wild music (III: 172)
Some wildlings exist in clans, with clan mothers (III: 172)
The Hornfoots and the Nightrunners are traditional enemies, as are the cannibal clans of the great ice rivers and the walrus men of the Frozen Shore (III: 172)
Wildling hosts are undisciplined even under a strong king (III: 173)
Wildlings make use of aurochs and fire flingers in war (III: 173)
Only one in a hundred wildlings is mounted (III: 173)
The wildlings have a song called "The Last of the Giants", which needs a deep voice to be done properly. It's a sad song bemoaning how men have come into the land to hunt the giants from their stone halls, with dogs and fire and sharp spears, and saying that because of them all the giants shall be gone (III: 175, 176)
Wildlings have daggers made of bone (III: 175)
The wildlings have many of the same names for constellations as the folk of the Seven Kingdoms do, although there are some differences. The King's Crown is the named the Cradle by them, as the Stallion is named the Horned Lord (III: 294)
The red wanderer that the Faith holds sacred to the Smith is named the Thief by the wildlings. When the Thief is within the Moonmaid, it's considered a propitious time for a man to steal a woman (III: 294. IV: 225))
The men of Thenn speak the Old Tongue, and most have only a few words of the Common Tongue (III: 297)
Raiders start at a young age, at as little as 12 years (III: 298)
Arson Iceaxe was a wildling who had tunneled halfway through the Wall when he was found by rangers from the Nightfort. They did not trouble to disturb him at his digging, only sealed the way behind with ice and stone and snow (III: 298)
Some say Iceaxe can still be heard chipping away at the Wall if an ear is pressed to it (III: 298)
The Thenns consider themselves the last of the First Men (III: 299)
The Magnar of Thenn rules his people with an iron hand (III: 299)
The men of Thenn are surrounded in their homeland by cave dwellers, Hornfoot men, giants, and the cannibal clans of the ice rivers (III: 299)
The Thenns are savage fighters, but because of their belief in their Magnar as their god they are absolutely obedient and much more disciplined than other wildlings (III: 299)
The wildlings say that many have searched for Gorne's Way, but some are lost. They believe this is because they meet Gendel's children, who are always hungry for the flesh of men (III: 300, 301)
The wildlings do not bed members of their villages. They believe a true man will steal a woman from afar to strengthen the clan. Women who wed brothers, fathers, or clan kin offend the gods, and are cursed with weak and sickly children (III: 302)
The Thenns carry bronze-banded warhorns (III: 336)
The wildlings climb the Wall with the aid of hempen rope, queer boots of supple doeskin spiked with iron, bronze, or more usually jagged bone, small stone-headed hammers, stakes of iron and bone and horn, and antlers with sharpened tines bound to wooden hafts with strips of hide serving as ice axes (III: 337, 338, 340)
The Watch stumbles on climbers two or three times a year during its patrols, and rangers sometimes come across the broken bodies of those who had fallen (III: 338)
In the east the wildlings use boats to slip past Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and across the Bay of Seals, while in the west they descend into the black depths of the Gorge to make their way around the Shadow Tower (III: 338)
Young, green raiders will often steal a horse as soon as they've crossed the Wall, and the hue and cry that brings greatly increases the chances that they'll be captured and hung (III: 338)
Climbing even 500 feet of Wall is an exercise that can take most of a day (III: 341)
The wildlings have huge ladders of woven hemp that can be some hundred feet long (III: 341)
Wildling raids have increased over the last years as the Watch has grown weaker, and so the places nearest the Wall have been raided so often that people have moved further south into the mountains or into the Umber lands east of the Kingsroad (III: 453)
The Umber lands are raided by wildlings on occasion, but not as often as those who live nearer to the Wall in the Gift (III: 453)
Wildlings steal daughters, not wives (III: 462)
The wildlings believe that the gods made the earth for all men to share. When the kings came with their crowns and their steel swords, they stole it, claiming it was all theirs and theirs alone (III: 462)
Raiders do not cross the Wall to steal fish and apples. They take swords and axes, spices, silks, and furs, every coin, ring, and jeweled cup they can find, casks of wine in summer and casks of beef in winter, and they take women in any season to carry them off beyond the Wall (III: 463)
Every wildling girl learns from her mother that a man can own a woman or a man can own a knife, but never both (III: 463)
Wildlings fight like demons or heroes, depending on who you asked, but in the end it means that they fight with reckless courage, every man out for glory without discipline (III: 463, 464)
The wildlings know of the green men of the Isle of Faces (III: 466)
There are women said to be woods witches among the wildlings, and sometimes their sons and daughters are said to have gifts for foretelling the weather (III: 466)
Some wildlings have bronze swords (III: 469)
Wildlings from the Frozen Shore have raided Bear Island in the past, and there are wildlings who make a life of sailing the salt sea (III: 522, 719)
The wildlings believe it's bad luck to name a child before he was two (and sometimes older, if he is particularly sickly) because so many of them die (III: 532. IV: 523. V: 13)
Wildlings believe the Others and their wights can smell life, and that the newborn stink of life most of all (III: 533)
The wildlings are fair thieves but bad hagglers (III: 608)
The Magnar of Thenn has a long weirwood spear with an ornate bronze head, which may be a symbol of his rule (III: 621)
The wildlings make music with drums, pipes, and skins (III: 717, 720)
There seem to be many languages beyond the Wall, besides the Old Tongue of the First Men and the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms (III: 718)
The wildlings have slingers (III: 720)
The wildlings have tools such as sledgehammers and long saws with teeth of bone and flint (III: 778)
Wildlings can quickly raise crude longhalls of logs and woven branches, sometimes featuring roofs of sod (III: 779. V: 65)
Wildlings can make and use rolling mantlets, slanting wooden shields large enough for several men to hide behind, to protect their archers (III: 779)
Old women might drive about in dog carts while on the march (III: 834)
The Horn of Winter is huge and black, eight feet along its curve and so wide at the mouth that a man's arm could fit to the elbow. It is banded with old dark gold, more brown than yellow, and graven with runes (III: 836)
The wildlings have no trumpets, only warhorns (III: 840)
Raiding is a part of wildling culture, but martial discipline is largely unknown to them (SSM: 1)
Wildlings place importance in a man keeping word (SSM: 1)
The wildlings do note hate northmen as much as they hate the Night's Watch (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 09, 2016
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3.4.1. Geography beyond the Wall

The forest north of the Wall is never allowed closer than half a mile, and is supposed to be haunted (I: 179)
Over the decades, the places which the abandoned citadels once manned have had the forest creeping in nearer to the Wall (I: 179)
Icy mountains rise west and north of the Shadow Tower (I: 372)
Beyond the Wall, in the haunted forest, there are groves of carven weirwoods left by the Children (I: 432)
One can find groves of nine carven weirwoods beyond the Wall, something which is unheard of south of it (I: 434)
The Gorge (I: 654)
There is a small village, consisting of four one-room houses of unmortared stone around a well and sheepfold named Whitetree which appears on old maps. Its name comes from the giant weirwood that is in its midst, its limbs pale and its face having a hole large enough to place a sheep within for a mouth (II: 150)
There are other villages south of Whitetree, at least three of them (II: 152)
North of Whitetree there's water, perhaps a lake. West of it are some flint hills (II: 152)
The "ranger roads" are game trails and stream beds which the brothers of the Watch who are ranging north use to lead them deeper into the north beyond the Wall (II: 153)
There are at least seven wildling villages between Castle Black and Craster's Keep (II: 260)
The Frostfangs are cruel and inhospitable, a wilderness of stone and ice (II: 275)
The Fist of the First Men is a hill that juts above a dense tangle of forest. It's windswept heights are visible from miles away (II: 371)
The Fist has steep bare brown slopes, knuckled with stone (II: 371)
The Fist's summit is crowned by a chest-high wall of tumbled grey rocks patched with lichen and bearded with moss. It is difficult to find a gap in the wall where horses can be led through (II: 371)
The Fist of the First Men is an ancient ringfort used in the Dawn Age (II: 371)
There is a brook at the foot of the Fist (II: 372)
For some reason, a direwolf warg refuses to enter the enclosure of the Fist, but domesticated animals such as a raven and horses don't object (but later caged ravens show disquiet) (II: 372, 374)
From the summit of the Fist, the Milkwater (a river) can be seen curving away to the south (II: 373)
Up-river from the Fist, the land is more rugged, the dense forest giving way to bare stoney hills that rise high and wild to the north and the west (II: 373)
The mountains in the northwestern horizon from the Fist are many, range on range of them fading into the distance, their jagged peaks always snow-covered (II: 373)
To the south and east of the Fist, the wood goes on as far as the eye can see (II: 373)
Pines and sentinel trees dominate the forest south and east of the Fist, but occasional broadleafs or weirwoods can be seen (II: 373)
The easiest road up to the Frostfangs (the mountains northwest of the Fist) is to follow the Milkwater to its source, but this path is very visible. Other paths into the Frostfangs include the Giant's Stair and the Skirling Pass, if it is clear (II: 374)
The Frostfangs are very cold, even in the summer (II: 374)
Not even wildlings dare live in the Frostfangs during the winter (II: 374)
For a sizeable host, the only way down from the Frostfangs is along the Milkwater (II: 374)
A fire lit on the summit of the Fist would be visible from the foothills of the Frostfangs (II: 375)
The Skirling Pass is more than two thousand feet above sea level. It is named for the keening sound the wind makes as it blows through the pass (II: 538)
By day the mountains are a blue-grey, brushed by frost. By night, they're black, unless the moon limns them in silver and white (II: 538)
The Skirling Pass is actually a series of passes, a long and twisting course that goes up around a succession of icy wind-carved peaks and down through hidden valleys that rarely see sunlight (II: 538)
Few trees grow on the slopes of the Frostfangs; those that do are stunted and twisted, growing sideways from cracks and fissures (II: 538)
Tumbled shelves of rock often overhang trails that make their way up the slopes (II: 538)
The Frostfangs have a diverse series of wonders. Icy waterfalls plunge over sheer stone cliffs, mountain meadows are filled with grass and wildflowers, there are ravines so deep and black they seem to go all the way to hell, and bridges of natural stone span distances with only the sky to either side (II: 539)
Above the treeline of the Frostfangs, particularly about the Skirling Pass, there is no grass with a few weeds and pale litchen clinging to life amongst cracks in the rock (II: 557)
A wind-carved arch marks the highest point of the Skirling Pass before it broadens and begins a long descent towards the valley of the Milkwater (II: 557)
From the top of the Skirling Pass, there is a hidden valley, long and v-shaped, amongst the mountains. A glacier of ice several thousand high plugs one end, squeezed between the mountains. Under that icy height is a great lake, its waters a deep cobalt that reflect the snow-capped peaks that surround it (II: 560-561)
The deep lake amongst the mountains is the source of the Milkwater (II: 561)
The Forktop is a huge mountain with jagged twin peaks in the Frostfangs (II: 562)
There's a path through the heart of the mountains, a tunnel whose entrance is hidden behind a twisting waterfall. The stony path twists and turns and goes up and down and at times is tight enough that garrons will become nervous (II: 693-694)
The path takes many hours to walk (II: 694)
The banks of the Milkwater are stony (III: 2)
The shortest way to the Wall from the Fist of the First Men is due south towards the Shadow Tower (III: 6)
The foothills of the Frostfangs are full of narrow winding valleys (III: 11)
There is a region named Thenn in the far north (III: 80)
The Milkwater passes through the heart of the Haunted Forest (III: 173)
Not far from the Fist of the First Men, the Milkwater grows shallow as it makes a great loop to the east (III: 176)
The south slope of the Fist of the First Men is the easiest approach (III: 176)
There's rough, hilly ground near the Wall between the Shadow Tower and Castle Black (III: 295)
Deep lakes stretch like long thing fingers along narrow valleys floors amidst the foothills of the Frostfangs, and flint ridges and pine-clad hills stand side by side (III: 295)
There is a vast network of caves near the Wall and the abandoned castles of Greyguard and Stonedoor. It's said one of the passages even opens south of the Wall that the wildlings call Gorne's Way (III: 297, 300)
Thenn is a little land, a high mountain valley hidden among the northernmost peaks of the Frostfangs, surrounded by cave dwellers, Hornfoot men, giants, and the cannibal clans of the ice rivers (III: 299)
Oak and ash trees can be found in the Haunted Forest, along with sentinels and weirwoods (III: 336)
The land west of Castle Black is rugged and wild, full of huge humped hills, high granites cliff, deep valleys, and so on (III: 336, 337)
The Gorge is very deep, and is used by wildlings to slip around the Shadow Tower in the west (III: 338)
Beyond Skagos is the Shivering Sea (III: 608)
The eastern coast has a hundred little coves where wildlings are wont to trade (III: 608)
Within the deep Gorge is a place called the Bridge of Skulls. Around it and below it are many rocks, and it stands over at least one pool of water (III: 780, 861)
The woods in the lands beyond the Wall are full of streams and lakes (V: 66)
No army could go west around the Wall because of the mountains and a deep river gorge. Only small groups of raiders ever filter through (SSM: 1)
Hardhome is the closest things the wildlings have to a city (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 21, 2013
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3.4.2. Trade and Resources

The wildlings have contact with smugglers from the Free Cities and perhaps Westeros as well, trading goods in the little coves on the eastern coast along the Shivering Sea. They take steel weapons and armor in return for furs, ivory, amber, and obsidian (III: 608)
Chieftains and notorious men may receive tributes from villages and clans under their sway in the form of bread, salt, and cider (V: 9)
A dozen strings of amber and a pile of pelts might be traded for six skins of wine, a block of salt, and a copper kettle (V: 11-12)
Some Wildings could trade at Eastwatch, if they were welcomed as friends of the Watch (V: 12)

Last revised March 15, 2013
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3.4.3. Kings-beyond-the-Wall

Raymun Redbeard once led the wildlings south against the Wall some 150 or more years ago, and before him there was the king Bael the Bard (II: 275)
Long before Raymun and Bael, there was the Horned Lord and the brother kings Gendel and Gorne (II: 276)
In ancient times, stories say that Joramun blew the Horn of Winter and woke giants from the earth (II: 276)
All the wildlings hosts that have attacked southwards have broken their strength on the Wall or by the power of Winterfell beyond (II: 276)
Bael the Bard is said to have made the song of the winter rose, recounting an adventure in his past. All the wildlings know his songs, which in general have maids falling in love with him all the time (II: 544-545)
Bael was a great raider before he was King-beyond-the-Wall (II: 544)
Bael lived in the time of a Lord Brandon Stark (known to the wildlings as Brandon the Daughterless), who had no other children save a daughter. The story has it that Bael seduced the daughter, who gave birth to a bastard son who eventually inherited Winterfell (II: 544-545)
The story says that Bael was slain by his bastard son, the young Lord Stark, because he refused to fight his own blood. Because of the kinslaying, the Starks were cursed; the story goes that Lord Stark's mother killed herself when she saw Bael's head upon Lord Stark's spear, and Lord Stark himself did not long outlive her when one of the Bolton lords skinned him (II: 545)
Wildlings do not name their kings "Your Grace". Most simply refer to them by name without title or style (III: 82)
Bael the Bard wrote and lived his own songs (III: 83)
The brother kings Gendel and Gorne existed some three thousand years ago (III: 300)
Gendel and Gorne are said to have led their host through the network of caves amidst the hills north of the Wall, exiting on the southern side. However, the Starks of Winterfell fell upon them then (III: 300)
Gorne slew the King in the North in battle, but his son picked up his banner and took the crown from his head, and cut down Gorne in turn (III: 300)
In the south it's said that Gendel died, as the Watch came to attack him from the north while the King in the North was to the south and the Umbers to the east. The wildlings say differently however, claiming he cut his way free through the Watch and led his people back north into the caves. However, it was Gorne who knew the caves best, and without him to lead them Gendel and his folk were lost. The wildlings believe that Gendel's folk never escaped the caves, but their children's children's children sob under the hills, and are always hungry for the flesh of men (III: 300)
Lord Commander Rodrik Flint thought to make himself King-beyond-the-Wall (III: 612)
It's said that Joramun joined forces with the Stark of Winterfell against the Night's King, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He was defeated and his name and all records of him were destroyed (III: 629, 630)
The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it (III: 836)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.5. The Giants

In stories, giants are outsized men who live in huge castles, carried huge swords, and walk in boots that a boy could hide in (III: 166)
Giants are more bearlike than human, and as wooly as the mammoths they ride (III: 166)
Giants are perhaps ten feet tall, or twelve, but no more than fourteen feet. Their sloping chests might pass for those of men, but their arms hang too low and their lower torsos look to be half again as wide as their upper torso. Their legs are shorter than their arms, but very thick. They wear no boots at all, for their feet are broad splayed things that are hard and horny and black (III: 166)
Neckless, the huge heavy heads of giants thrust forward from between their shoulder blades, and their faces are squashed and brutal. They have tiny rats' eyes almost lost within the folds of horny flesh, but they snuffle constantly, smelling as much as they saw (III: 166, 167)
The hair of the giants cover them in shaggy pelts, thick below the waist and sparser above (III: 167)
The giants use clubs as weapons, most simply being the limbs of dead trees. A few have stone balls lashed to the ends to make colossal mauls, and some have huge stone axes (III: 167, 720)
Older giants have fur gone grey and streaked with white (III: 167)
Giants have huge square teeth (III: 167)
A giant's laugh is half belch and half rumble (III: 167)
The giants have no kings (III: 167)
Giant names are very odd. For example: Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg, which may mean Mag the Mighty (III: 167)
Giants have bad eyes (III: 167)
The wildlings have a song called "The Last of the Giants", which needs a deep voice to be done properly. It's a sad song bemoaning how men have come into the land to hunt the giants from their stone halls, with dogs and fire and sharp spears, and saying that because of them all the giants shall be gone (III: 175, 176)
There are hundreds of giants remaining, but there were once many more. Men killed them (III: 175)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising Winterfell (III: 461)
Giants are hugely strong. One alone is able to wrench great doors off of their hinges, twist off the heads of men with their bare hands even after taking many wounds, and wrench the bars of an iron gate apart (III: 723, 724)

Last revised April 09, 2013
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3.6. The Others

The Others can move silently (I: 7)
With Others comes an unnatural and terrible cold (I: 7)
The Others are tall, gaunt, and hard. Their flesh is pale as milk (I: 7)
The Others wear armor that shifts colors; white as snow, black as shadow the grey-green of trees. The patterns of color move with every step (I: 7)
The swords of the Others are translucent, like shards of extremely thin crystal with a faint blue ghost light that seems to play around it. The blades are sharper than any razor (I: 7)
The eyes of the Others are a deep, inhuman blue that burns like fire (I: 7, 8. II: 272)
When steel meets the blade of an Other, a high keening sound almost beyond hearing can be heard (I: 8)
Steel begins to frost as it contacts the cold sword of an Other (I: 8)
The Others have their own strange language, and their voices sound like the cracking of ice (I: 8)
When steel meets the blade of an Other enough, it can shatter from the cold (I: 8)
When a man is slain by the Others, he can become a wight. One sign of this is eyes that have changed to an unnatural blue, as well as an icy cold body (I: 9)
Wights made by the Others have flesh as pale as milk, although their hands are black as if with deep frostbite because the blood congeals there (I: 464. V: 69-70)
The blood of wights turns into a dark dust rather than clot and congeal (I: 465)
Wights could be dead for days and have no stink such as corpses would have in that time (I: 465)
Animals; even worms and maggots; avoid the body of a wight. Neither horses nor dogs will go near them (I: 465)
A wight is strong enough to break a man's neck, turning the head around to face the wrong way (I: 472)
A wight is able to sneak up on a guard, turn a latch, and hunt for a particular person that it seems to remember from when it was a living person (I: 472, 473. II: 265)
Wights can seem dead by day but can return to animation in darkness (I: 473)
Cutting into a wight feels wrong, and it releases a strange and cold smell that makes on want to gag (I: 473)
Even if a limb is removed from a wight it is still animated (I: 473)
The unnaturally blue eyes of wights come from an equally unnatural frost that covers them (I: 474)
One weakness of the wights is fire. They burn as readily as dry wood and their skin melts away (I: 547)
Even with its head removed, a wight can continue fighting (I: 550)
Some wildlings believe the Others are gods, calling them the cold gods in the night and white shadows; they give up animals and even children to appease them when 'the white cold' comes (II: 271)
The wildlings call the Others the white walkers (II: 381)
Animals can be turned into wights (III: 202)
Wights can still be useful even if their flesh is rotted (III: 204)
The Others can ride wight-horses (III: 207)
Others appear to be very light, as their feet do not break the thin icy crust of snow (III: 207)
The swords of the Others gleam with a faint blue glow (III: 207)
Dragonglass is dangerous to the Others. When it strikes, it makes a cracking sound like ice breaking (III: 208)
The Others have pale blue blood (III: 208)
The blood of the Others will hiss and steam around black obsidian (III: 208)
The Others have bone white hands (III: 208)
Any of the flesh of the Others that comes in contact with dragonglass begins to smoke and melt away (III: 208)
The Others will melt and puddle, dissolving, because of dragonglass. In twenty heartbeats, their flesh can be gone, and the bones will melt away as well leaving only the lingering steam (III: 208)
The Others have bones like milkglass, pale and shining (III: 208)
Even after melting an Other away, dragonglass will feel freezing cold (III: 208)
Wildlings who sacrifice infants to the Others seem to believe that the infants are raised by the Others and come back to continue taking children (III: 380)
Wildlings believe the Others and their wights can smell life, and that the newborn stink of life most of all (III: 533)
Wights do not show fear when confronted with dragonglass (III: 534)
Wights are clumsy (III: 535)
When a wight is destroyed, the blue disappears from its eyes (III: 535)
A description of a strange woman that seems much like an Other or one of their wights, part of the legend of the Night's King (III: 629, 630)
The Others appear only at night (III: 838)
There is a suggestion that the Others are creatures of the God of Night and Terror who wars eternal against R'hllor (III: 868)
Tales claim that the Others come when it is cold. Some say that it becomes cold when they come. It's said they appear during snowstorms and mealt away when the skies clear, so that they hide from the light of the sun and emerge at night; although some stories claim that their coming brings the night. There are tales of their riding the corpses of dead animals such as bears, direwolves, mammoths, and horses, and that they also ride upon giant ice spiders. Tales also tell that those who die fighting them must be burned or their bodies will rise up as their thralls (IV: 80)
The armor of the Others are said to be proof against ordinary weapons and that their own blades are so cold as to shatter ordinary steel. They are said to be vulnerable to dragonglass, however, and fire is said to dismay them (IV: 80)
The last hero is said to have killed Others with a sword of dragonsteel (IV: 80)

Last revised March 21, 2013
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3.7. The Old Gods

The gods of the North are nameless and numerous (I: 6. SSM: 1)
The First Men and their descendants in the north largely follow the old gods, which were worshipped by the Children of the Forest (I: 19, etc.)
Every castle has its godswood, at which the center is always a heart tree with its face (I: 19)
The places where carven weirwoods stand are sacred, and are not defiled by bringing animals such as horses into them (I: 435)
In the North, only a few houses do not worship the Old Gods, following the Seven instead (I: 476)
Beyond the Wall, the old gods are the only gods (I: 482)
The Blackwoods follow the old gods, and are one of the few southron houses to continue to do so (I: 661. SSM: 1)
Some men believe that it is impossible for a man to lie before a weirwood, because the gods will hear (II: 150)
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)
Even in the North, septons witness marriages (although this may not be the case if both parties follow only the old gods) (II: 384)
Marriages are also made before the heart trees (II: 384)
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)
The old gods hold slavery as an abomination (III: 264)
The old gods are said to still linger at High Heart, keeping a red priest from looking into his flames and seeing visions (III: 492)
Among the wildlings, it's believed that when one dies, the old gods take the person down into the earth and into the trees, to be among them as they inhabit all things (V: 13)

Last revised March 15, 2013
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3.8. Songs, Stories, and Legends

Giants are said to live beyond the Wall, and consort with wildlings (I: 12)
Ghouls are believed to exist (I: 12)
The Others are supposed to have lain with wildling women and brought about half-human abominations (I: 12. II: 274)
There are legends of pups being born after the death of their mother; it's seen as an ill omen (I: 15)
The Others are believed dead, gone for 8,000 years (I: 20)
Thousands of years before, Brandon the Builder had raised Winterfell, and some claimed he raised the Wall as well (I: 202)
A story of the Others and the long night before the coming of the Andals, and the last hero (I: 202-203)
The Others hate iron and fire and the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They rode pale dead horses, fed their dead servants on human flesh, and hunted maidens with packs as pale white spiders big as hounds (I: 203)
It is believed among the more learned that giants are all dead, like the children of the forest. The wildlings claim otherwise (I: 483. II: 381)
Giants are supposed to be as big as twelve or thirteen feet high, fierce creatures who are covered in hair and whose women are bearded like men. It is said the giant women take human men for lovers (I: 483)
The children are said to have once called the nameless gods to send the hammer of the waters from the Children's Tower of Moat Cailin (I: 498)
There are said to be ghosts hungry for southron blood around Moat Cailin at night (I: 499)
The Children are said to have known much of dreams, knew the songs of trees and the speech of animals, could fly like birds and swim like fish. Their music was so beautiful it would make one weep to hear it (I: 616)
A story of a brave and clever hero who was imprisoned in a castle by evil giants. He tricked them and escaped, but no sooner was he free that the Others killed him and drank his blood (II: 105)
Northern songs such as "Iron Lances," "The Burning of the Ships," and "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" (II: 238)
It is said that the crannogmen are cowardly and fight with poisoned weapons, preferring to hide from foes rather than give open battle (II: 242)
The song named "The Night that Ended," which deals with the Battle for the Dawn in which the Night's Watch rode forth to meet the Others (II: 242)
In ancient times, Joramun blew the Horn of Winter and woke giants from the earth (II: 276)
The maesters believe that all the giants are now dead (II: 325)
Beastlings and shapechangers are always evil in common stories (II: 383)
Giants, wargs, and worse things are said to live in the Frostfangs (II: 460)
There are foolish stories which say that the crannogmen have a boggy smell like frogs and trees and scummy water. Moss grows under their arms instead of hair, and they can live with nothing to eat but mud and breathe swampwater (II: 534)
Bael the Bard is said to have made the song of the winter rose, recounting an adventure in his past. All the wildlings know his songs, which in general have maids falling in love with him all the time (II: 544-545)
Bael lived in the time of a Lord Brandon Stark (known to the wildlings as Brandon the Daughterless), who had no other children save a daughter. The story has it that Bael seduced the daughter, who gave birth to a bastard son who eventually inherited Winterfell (II: 544-545)
The giants are said to speak the language of the First Men (II: 544)
Bael was slain by his bastard son, the young Lord Stark, because he refused to fight his own blood. Because of the kinslaying, the Starks were cursed; the story goes that Lord Stark's mother killed herself when she saw Bael's head upon Lord Stark's spear, and Lord Stark himself did not long outlive her when one of the Bolton lords skinned him (II: 545)
Giants do exist and are large enough to ride mammoths (II: 561)
Giants are too thick in the leg and hips to appear as men (II: 561)
It's said that direwolves once roamed the north in packs of a hundred or more and feared neither man nor mammoth. This was long ago, however (II: 654)
In stories, giants are outsized men who live in huge castles, carried huge swords, and walk in boots that a boy could hide in (III: 166)
The green men, the guardians of the Isle of Faces, are said to have dark green skin and leaves instead of hair, and sometimes they have antlers as well (III: 283)
In the south it's said that Gendel died, as the Watch came to attack him from the north while the King of the North was to the south and the Umbers to the east. The wildlings say differently however, claiming he cut his way free through the Watch and led his people back north into the caves. However, it was Gorne who knew the caves best, and without him to lead them Gendel and his folk were lost. The wildlings believe that Gendel's folk never escaped the caves, but their children's children's children sob under the hills, and are always hungry for the flesh of men (III: 300)
The wildlings believe that opening the graves of the dead releases their spirits to haunt the world (III: 341)
The wildlings seem to believe that the Horn of Joramun is buried in a grave (III: 341)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising the Wall (III: 461)
The Nightfort figures in some of the scariest stories of the North, although doubtlessly many of them are false. It was there that Night's King reigned before his name was wiped from the memory of man, and where the Rat Cook served the Andal king his prince-and-bacon pie, where the 79 sentinels stood their watch, where brave young Danny Flint had been raped and murdered, where King Sherrit had called down his curse of the Andals of old, where the apprentice boys had faced the thing that came in the night, where blind Symeon Star-Eyes had seen the Hellhounds fight, and where Mad Axe had walked the yards and climbed the towers to butcher his brothers in the dark (III: 624, 625)
The Rat Cook's children are believed to still be in the Nightfort, hiding from their father (III: 625)
The Rat Cook is supposed to be a white rat almost as huge as a sow (III: 628)
It's said that the ghosts of the seventy-nine sentinels haunt the Nightfort (III: 628)
Seventy-nine deserters once left the Nightfort to become outlaws. One of them was Lord Ryswell's youngest son, so when they reached the barrowlands they sought shelter at his castle, but he took them captive and returned them to the Nightfort. The Lord Commander had holes hewn in the top of the Wall and he put the deserters in them, sealing them alive in the ice with spears and horns so that they could face north; they had left their posts in life, so in death their watch went on forever. Years later, when Lord Ryswell was old and dying, he had himself carried to the Nightfort so he could take the black and stand beside the son he had loved (III: 628)
It's said that the ghosts of the seventy-nine sentinels haunt the Nightfort, but never leave the Wall (III: 628, 632)
The legends say that the Night's King was a warrior without fear, and when he saw a woman atop the Wall with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars, he chased her and loved her though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well. He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years he ruled until finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was discovered that he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of him were destroyed and his very name was forbidden (III: 629, 630)
Some say the Night's King was a Bolton, or a Magnar out of Skagos, others say he was an Umber, Flint, or Norrey. Others still say he was a Woodfoot, who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came, but others still say he was a Stark who was brother to the man who brought him down (III: 630)
The Rat Cook had cooked the son of the Andal king in a big pie with onions, carrots, mushrooms, lots of pepper and salt, a rasher of bacon, and a dark red Dornish wine. Then he served him to his father, who praised the taste and had a second slice. Afterward the gods transformed the cook into a monstrous white rat who could only eat his own young. He roamed the Nightfort ever since, devouring his children, but still his hunger was not sated. The moral of the story is that the gods did not curse him for his murder or for his serving the Andal king his son in a pie, for a man has a right to vengeance, but he was cursed for slaying a guest beneath his roof and that the gods cannot forgive (III: 631)
Legend says that the apprentice boys saw the thing that came in the night at the Nightfort, but afterward when they told their Lord Commander every description had been different. Three died within the year, the fourth went mad, and a hundred years later when the thing had come again, the apprentice boys were seen chambling along behind it, in chains (III: 632)
Tales have it that the heads of giants have been mounted on the walls of Winterfell in the past (III: 906)
Tales claim that the Others come when it is cold. Some say that it becomes cold when they come. It's said they appear during snowstorms and mealt away when the skies clear, so that they hide from the light of the sun and emerge at night; although some stories claim that their coming brings the night. There are tales of their riding the corpses of dead animals such as bears, direwolves, mammoths, and horses, and that they also ride upon giant ice spiders. Tales also tell that those who die fighting them must be burned or their bodies will rise up as their thralls (IV: 80)
The armor of the Others are said to be proof against ordinary weapons and that their own blades are so cold as to shatter ordinary steel. They are said to be vulnerable to dragonglass, however, and fire is said to dismay them (IV: 80)
The last hero is said to have killed Others with a sword of dragonsteel (IV: 80)
It's said that in ancient days, men of Skagos sailed to Skane, seizing all the women, killing all the men, and feasting on their hearts and livers for a fortnight. Skane has been uninhabited since (IV: 220)
It's said that in the past, during long, hard winters the old men who have lived past their years would announce they were going out to go hunting. Daughters would weep and sons would turn to the fire, but no one would stop them (IV: 326)
Stories claim that ghouls live beyond the Wall (V: 63)

Last revised March 21, 2013
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4. The Iron Islands

Even men of the Iron Isles have walked the Wall (I: 553)
For thousands of years, raiders from the islands (called ironmen by those they raided) were the terror of the seas from as far as the Port of Ibben and the Summer Isles (I: 688)
The ironmen prided themselves on their fierceness in battle and their sacred freedoms (I: 688)
Each island had its own rock king and salt king. The High King of the Isles was chosen from among their number (I: 688)
The ironborn use longships (II: 85)
The ironborn captains are proud and wilful and do not go in awe of another man's blood (II: 123)
A longship can travel twice as swiftly as a merchant cog (II: 123)
Life is mean and meagre on the islands. Men spend their nights drinking ale and arguing over who has the worse lot, the fisherfolk who struggle with the sea, the farmers who try to eke out a living from the poor thin soil, or the miners who break their backs underground (II: 124)
The ironmen of old turned to raiding, in part no doubt to the poor qualities of their islands (II: 124)
The Iron Islands are an insignificant backwater in comparison to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms (II: 125)
The hovels in which the smallfolk live use sod for the roofs (II: 126)
Longships might be painted in various colors, such as red (II: 126)
At least some longships have iron rams on their bows, shaped fancifully (II: 126)
A woman might well captain a ship in the Iron Islands (II: 129)
There are thralls in the Iron Islands, despite the fact that slavery is illegal in the Seven Kingdoms (II: 132)
There are a few women on the Iron Islands who crewed longships alongside their men, and it's said that salt and sea give them the same appetites as men (II: 277)
A longship a hundred feet long would have about fifty oars and room for about a hundred men on the deck. There are larger ships in the Iron Islands, belonging to the Lord Reaper of Pyke or other important figures (II: 278)
The ironborn call the mainland "the green lands" (II: 279)
Ironmen do not bend their knees often or easily, but are respectful to lords who have earned it (II: 280)
The Iron Islands are too rocky and sparse to breed good horses. Most islanders are indifferent riders at best, being more comfortable aboard their ships. Even lords ride garrons or shaggy ponies from Harlaw, and oxcarts are more common than drays (II: 282)
Smallfolk who are too poor to afford oxen or horses pull their own plows (II: 282)
The fleet of the Iron Islands is known as the Iron Fleet, with a Lord Captain at its head who is not necessarily the Lord of Pyke (II: 284)
The ironborn have a game they call the finger dance, entailing throwing short-hafted axes at one another. The trick was to catch the axe or leap over it just right. The name comes from the fact that the game usually ends with a dancer losing one or more of his fingers (II: 287)
Ironmen of old were often blood-drunk in battle, so berserk that they felt no pain and feared no enemy (II: 394)
Longships have high prows which are sometimes carved (II: 396)
Most ironborn would prefer fighting on foot or from the deck of a ship over fighting on horse back (II: 397)
The ironborn lack the discipline to stand against a charge of armored horsemen (II: 589)
The old way of healing serious wounds in the Iron Islands was to use fire and seawater (IV: 24)
Petty lords and villages can be found all along the way from the Hardstone Hills to Pebbleton at Great Wyk (IV: 26)
Most ironborn lords style themselves by their house names, such as "the Sparr", but some who have been influenced by the mainland style themselves as lord (IV: 27)
Ironmen will make use of ships captured in raids or war, such as cogs, carracks, and dromonds that cannot be run ashore (IV: 256)
At a kingsmoot, men of note will bring servants (thralls or salt wives, or if they are too familiar with the ways of the green lands, maesters, singers, and knights). Common men will stand in a crescent at the knoll's base, with women, children, and thralls to the rear while captains and kings climb to the top of the hill (IV: 269)
A claimant to the crown at a kingsmoot will come forward, supported by picked champions, and make his case to the ironborn. He then concludes by distributing the bounty and treasure he has to offer. The captains and kings who accept the treasures shout their support, and anything left over can be picked over by lesser men, whose support no one cares about (IV: 270-272)
At least some Iron Islands warships employ drummers to keep time. They drum a battle beat during fighting (IV: 427)
Some ironborn warships are large enough to have lower decks (IV: 431)
There are no slaves on the Iron Islands, only thralls. Thralls are bound to service, but they are not property, and a thralls children would be considered free if they were given to the Drowned God. The onl way to win a thrall was to pay the iron price (IV: 435)

Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.1. Geography

There is no safe anchorage on Pyke (II: 121)
The shore of Pyke is full of jagged outcroppings of rock and cliffs of grey-black stone (II: 121)
The point of land on which Pyke was raised had once thrust out like a sword into the ocean, but the waves had broken and shattered it thousands of years past (II: 121)
Pyke is now three islands and a dozen stacks of towering rock (II: 121)
The Iron Islands are windy, cold, and damp (II: 122)
Around a point clad with pines, a castle stands guarding the village of Lordsport beneath it (II: 126)
Ravens can be used to send word to Pyke from the mainland (II: 127)
Old Wyk is one of the Iron Islands (II: 128)
Harlaw is one of the Iron Islands and lies a day's sail from Pyke(II: 129, 285)
Great Wyk is the largest of the Iron Islands, large enough that some lords have holdings that do not reach the sea (II: 129. IV: 21)
The Iron Islands are too rocky and sparse to breed good horses (II: 282)
Harlaw is a day's sailing from Pyke (II: 285)
Saltcliffe is one of the Iron Islands (II: 287)
Orkmont is one of the Iron Islands (III: 941)
Pebbleton is a small town of several thousand fisherfolk on Great Wyk (IV: 21, 26)
The Hardstone Hills of Great Wyk are well inland by ironborn standards (IV: 21)
The hill of Nagga, where the Grey King's Hall was said to have stood, is on Old Wyk (IV: 27, 28)
Longships can moore beneath Ten Towers (IV: 159)
Harlaw is not the largest of the Iron Islands, but it is the most populous and richest (IV: 165)
Nagga's Cradle is a bay on Old Wyk, its shore considered sacred as above it rises a grassy hill with Nagga's Ribs at its peak (IV: 255)
Nagga's Ribs are like great white trees, twice as wide as a dromond's mast and twice as long. There are forty-four of them (IV: 255, 267)
The Goodbrothers of Old Wyk have a castle near the shore, across the island from Nagga's Ribs (IV: 260)
The region of Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore of the North are ten times larger than all the Iron Isles combined (IV: 265)
Nine wide, rock-hewn steps lead to the top of the hill where Nagga's Ribs lie (IV: 268)
Beyond the hill of Nagga are the wind-blown hills of Old Wyk, and beyond those black, cruel mountains (IV: 268)
The most westerly of the inhabited islets of the Iron Islands is the Lonely Light, eight days to the northwest from Great Wyk amidst rookeries of seals and sea lions (IV: 271)
The combined Four Shields are smaller than Harlaw (IV: 436)

Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.1.1. Trade and Resources

Iron ore is the chief commodity of the Iron Islands, along with tin and lead (II: 122, 124)
The sea is harsh around the islands, the soil is poor, and the mines turn out nothing but base metals (II: 125)
Ships from the Port of Ibben trade at the Iron Islands (II: 126)
Fish from the sea are abundant enough to sustain the ironborn even in winter (IV: 20)
Sealskins, walrus tusks, arm rings made of whalebone, and bronze-banded warhorns (IV: 271)
Thralls are won in battle, and are not treated as slaves to be bought and sold (IV: 435)

Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.2. The Greyjoys

The Lords Greyjoy still style themselves as Kings of Salt and Rock, Sons of the Sea Wind, and Lord Reapers of Pyke (I: 689)
The Greyjoys were the chief of the reavers of the Iron Islands (II: 131)
The jealousy and desire for heirship is such that in the distant past it has occasioned that brothers have murdered their own siblings at Pyke (II: 133)
The Seastone Chair is the seat of the Lord of Pyke (II: 284)
Nine-tenths of the Iron Fleet could sail in a ragged column extending for leagues (IV: 256)
The ships of the Iron Fleet are larger than longships, made for battle rather than raids. Most are equal in size and speed to lesser war galleys elsewhere in the Seven Kingdoms (IV: 474)
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)

Last revised July 29, 2009
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4.2.1. Pyke

There is no safe anchorage on Pyke (II: 121)
The shore of Pyke is full of jagged outcroppings of rock and cliffs, and the castle seems a part of the rest with its towers, walls, and bridges quarried of the same grey-black stone, wetted by the same waves, covered with the same patches of dark green lichen, and speckled with the droppings of the same sea birds (II: 121)
The point of land on which Pyke was raised had once thrust out like a sword into the ocean, but the waves had broken and shattered it thousands of years past. All that remain are three bare islands and a dozen stacks of towering rock. Atop those islands and pillars Pyke stands (II: 121)
Pyke is almost a part of the rock it stands on, its curtain wall closing off the headland around the foot of the great stone bridge that goes from clifftop to the largest of the islets, dominated by the massive size of the Great Keep (II: 121, 122)
Further out from the Great Keep are the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island (II: 122)
Towers and outbuildings cling to the stacks beyond the islands, linked to one another by covered archways when the pillars stand close and by long walks of wood and rope when they don't (II: 122)
The Sea Tower rises from the outmost island at the point of the broken sword. It is the oldest part of the castle, tall and round, the pillar of rock it stands on sheer sided and half-eaten through by the battering of the waves (II: 122)
The base of the Sea Tower is white from centuries of salt spray and the upper stories are green from lichen, while the jagged crown is blackened with the soot from the nightly watchfire (II: 122)
A gatehouse guards the great bridge the spans the distance from the clifftop to the Great Keep (II: 122)
Lordsport is on the other side of Pyke from the Greyjoy keep (II: 126, 287)
The walls of Pyke run as a crescent from cliff to cliff. The gatehouse is in its center, with three square towers to either side of it. One of them, the south tower, collapsed as it was breached by Robert Baratheon's forces (II: 132)
The gatehouse gates are supplemented by an iron portcullis (II: 132)
Beyond the curtain wall is half a hundred acres of headland. The stables, kennels, other outbuildings, sheep and swine pens are all there (II: 132)
To the south of the curtain wall are the cliffs and the wide stone bridge that leads to the Great Keep (II: 132)
The lord of Pyke resides in the Sea Tower (II: 133)
The Bloody Keep is larger and better furnished than the Sea Tower, the ceilings of its suite so high that it is lost in the gloom (II: 133)
The Bloody Keep was given its name for the bloody butchering of the sons of the old River King a thousand years before (II: 133)
From the Bloody Keep, a covered stone walkway leads back to the Great Keep. From there to the Sea Tower one must cross three further bridges, each narrow than the last. The final one is of rope and wood (II: 134)
The door into the Sea Tower is of grey wood, studded with iron (II: 134)
The Sea Tower has a damp and draughty solar (II: 134, 289)
The water about the towers of Pyke are green if the sun shines (II: 287)
The hall of the Greyjoys is long and smoky, with room enough to seat more than four hundred men (II: 287)
The lands and keep of House Wynch are on the other side of the island from the Greyjoy castle at Pyke (II: 287)
The Seastone Chair is a massive block of oily black stone, carved into the shape of a kraken. It sits on a dais in the great hall of the Greyjoys (II: 287)
Feasts in Pyke are meagre enough, plain fare of salted fish and fish stews, unspiced goat, and black bread being served (II: 289)
Atop the Flint Cliffs is the Blind Lord’s tower, said to be haunted (IV: 21)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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4.2.2. Ancestors and History

When Aegon slew Black Harren, Harren's brother was Lord Commander of the Watch and had 10,000 swords at his command; but he did not march (I: 553)
During the Wars of Conquest, the riverlands belonged to Harren the Black, King of the Isles (I: 684)
Harren's grandfather, Harwyn Hardhand, took the Trident from Arrec the Storm King whose ancestors had won lands up to the Neck 300 years earlier by killing the last River King (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)
The Greyjoys claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes, who was supposed to have ruled the western isles and the sea itself, taking a mermaid as his wife (I: 687)
King Urron of House Greyiron made the High Kingship of the Isles hereditary choosing some 5,000 years ago by slaying all the other kings when they had assembled for the choosing. These events, called the kingsmoot, has traditionally been held at the hill of Nagga on Old Wyk, where the Grey King's Hall was said to have stood. (I: 688. IV: 29. SSM: 1)
The line of King Urron was ended when the Andals swept over the islands a thousand years after his line became hereditary High Kings. The Greyjoys, like other lords, intermarried with the conquerors (I: 688)
King Qhored boasted, truthfully, that his laws were known wherever men could smell salt water or hear the crash of waves (I: 688)
Qhored's descendants lost the Arbor, Oldtown, Bear Island, and much of the western shore over the centuries (I: 688)
Harren the Black ruled all the lands between the mountains from the Neck to the Blackwater Rush (I: 688)
Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke was chosen by the surviving ironborn lords to have primacy over them after Aegon conquered them (I: 688)
Harren the Black had completed Harrenhal and had finally took up residence when word came on that very day of Aegon the Conqueror's landing (II: 88)
Harren had desired the highest hall and the most colossal towers in the Seven Kingdoms. The construction of his dream took forty years. Thousands of captives from the other realms died in the quarries chained to sledges or laboring on the five huge towers. Weirwoods were cut down to provide rafters and beams (II: 88)
Harren the Black beggared the riverlands and the Iron Islands to make Harrenhal (II: 88)
The point of land on which Pyke was raised had once thrust out like a sword into the ocean, but the waves had broken and shattered it thousands of years past (II: 121)
Thousands of years before, King Urron Redhand said "The Drowned God makes men, but it's men who make crowns" (II: 123)
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)
A thousand years earlier, the sons of the River King were butchered in their beds at Pyke so that the pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland (II: 133)
Greyjoys were not murdered in Pyke, unless it was once in a great while by their own brothers (II: 133)
Maron Greyjoy, the second of Balon Greyjoys sons, was killed in the collapse of the old south tower along the curtain wall (II: 136)
Victarion, Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet and brother to Lord Balon Greyjoy, sailed into Lannisport with his other brother Euron Croweye 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)
The Seastone Chair, a massive block of oily black stone carved in the shape of a great kraken, was reputedly found on the shore of Old Wyk by the First Men when they first came to the Iron Islands thousands of years ago (II: 287)
In 211, reavers out of the Iron Islands were known to raid coastal villages of the Reach and the Westerlands, even going as far south as the Arbor, under the auspices of Lord Dagon Greyjoy (TSS: 82, 83, 121)
Ironborn reavers carried off half the wealth and some hundred women of Fair Isle in 211 (TSS: 121)
No woman has ever ruled the ironborn (IV: 23)
In old times, kings were chosen by the kingsmoot. Among the kings so chosen as High King were Urras Ironfoot, Sylas Flatnose, Harrag Hoare, and the Old Kraken (IV: 29)
The Old Kraken was an ancestor of the Greyjoys (IV: 29, 278)
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)
It's said no woman has ever ruled over the ironborn (IV: 165)
Beneath Nagga's Ribs, every captain stands as an equal (IV: 166)
The kings of the ironborn wore driftwood crowns (IV: 255, 263)
No king of the Iron Isles ever needed a Hand (IV: 265)
In ancient days, the ironborn would sail their ships up the Mander as far as Bitterbridge, plundering and reaving with impunity. This changed when the Gardeners armed the fisherfolk of the Shield Islands some two thousand years ago (IV: 431)
Black Harren's line still exists through the female line (IV: 439)
The ironborn have not dared to raid the Reach since the days of Dagon Greyjoy. Lord Dagon was wont to flee back to the Iron Islands whenever ships were sent after his raiders (IV: 474)
The reaving of the ironborn under Lord Dagon led the Lannisters to begin to build ships for an attack against the Iron Islands while Lord Beron Stark was gathering swords at Winterfell to drive the ironmen from his shores (TMK: 664)
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)
House Hoare was the house of Harwyn Hardhand and Harren the Black (SSM: 1)
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. (SSM: 1, 2)

Last revised September 04, 2012
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4.2.3. Bannerhouses

House Harlaw of Harlaw (I: 689. II: 129, 285. IV: 159)
House Stonehouse of Old Wyk, ruled by the Stonehouse (I: 689. II: 128. IV: 269)
House Merlyn of Great Wyk (I: 689, II: 287)
House Sunderly of Saltcliffe, ruled by a lord (I: 689. II: 287. IV: 702)
House Tawney of Orkmont, ruled by a lord (I: 689. III: 941. IV: 702)
House Wynch of Iron Holt, on Pyke, ruled by a lord (I: 689. II: 287, 733)
House Drumm on Old Wyk. The Drumm is also known as the Bone Hand, and is Lord of Old Wyk (II: 128, 733. IV: 699)
House Blacktyde of Blacktyde (II: 287)
House Sparr of Great Wyk, ruled by the Sparr (II: 287. IV: 18)
House Saltcliffe of Saltcliffe (II: 287)
Thirty longships can carry about 1,000 men (II: 290, 588)
House Farwynd of Great Wyk (III: 941)
House Volmark of Volmark, on Harlaw (III: 941. IV: 159, 701)
House Myre of Harlaw (III: 941. IV: 159)
House Stonetree of Harlaw (III: 941. IV: 159)
House Kenning of Harlaw (III: 941)
House Orkwood of Orkmont, ruled by a lord (III: 941. IV: 700)
Pebbleton is a small town of several thousand on Great Wyk, ruled by Lord Merlyn from his square tower. There are turrets upon each of its corners (IV: 21, 26)
Petty lords can be found all along the way from the Hardstone Hills to Pebbleton on Great Wyk (IV: 26)
The Harlaws have no rival on Harlaw. The Volmarks and Stonetrees have large holdings and many famed captains and warriors, but they bow before the Harlaw. The Myres and Kennings were once bitter foes of the Harlaws, but are now vassals (IV: 165-166)
Among the Harlaw of Harlaws vassals are various cadet branches of the house, each ruling a seat (IV: 166-168)
Orkwood of Orkmont can raise at least twenty longships (IV: 170)
House Codd's words are "Though All Men Do Despise Us". They make use of nets when they fight (IV: 170)
Humble lesser houses, of small lineage: Shepherds, Weavers, Netleys, and Humbles (IV: 258)
The Humbles are said to be the humblest of all the ironborn houses, descendants of thralls and saltwives (IV: 258)
House Sharp (IV: 259)
It's claimed that the Volmarks are the true heirs of the "black line", the descendants of Harren the Black (IV: 260)
The Farwynds are considered strange by the other ironborn. Holding lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk, many of their holdings are on the scattered rocks in the seas beyond, some so small only a single household can reside there. The most distant of these is the Lonely Light, eight days to the northwest from Great Wyk. It's claimed that there are skinchangers among the Farwynds, able to change into sea lions, walruses, and spotted whales (IV: 271)
House Ironmaker (IV: 272, 699)
The Drumm carries the famous Valyrian steel sword, Red Rain, which his ancestor Hilmar the Cunning took from an armored knight with his wits and a wooden cudgel. The Drumms have an old lineage with many heroes to its credit, including Roryn the Reaver, Dale the Dread, and Gormond the Oldfather who was said to have had had a hundred sons (IV: 273)
The ironborn can raise hundreds of ships. Each major house can likely command a hundred vessels (IV: 434-435. SSM: 1)
There might be as many as 500 longships and war galleys (IV: 473, 474)
House Farwynd of Sealskin Point, on Great Wyk (IV: 702)
House Myre was once involved in the hanging of ten men in a single day, which is commemorated on their arms (SSM: 1)

Last revised July 29, 2009
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4.2.3.1. The Botleys of Lordsport

Lordsport is on Pyke (II: 126)
Above the village of Lordsport is the stronghold of House Botley. Originally the stronghold had been of timber and wattle, but Robert Baratheon had razed it to the ground. Lord Sawane rebuilt in stone, making a small square keep crowning the hill overlooking the village (II: 126)
Lordsport was also burned by Robert Baratheon's forces during the putting down of the rebellion (II: 126)
The old sept of Lordsport was destroyed in the rebellion, but it was never rebuilt (II: 126)
Lordsport's town is half the size of Lord Hewett's Town on Oakenshield (IV: 434)

Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.2.3.2. The Goodbrothers of Great Wyk, Old Wyk, and Orkmont

The main strength of the Goodbrothers is nearly forty longships (II: 280)
Goodbrother men are conspicuous, as they wear striped goat hair sashes (II: 280)
There appear to be at least three chief branches of the house, on Old Wyk, Great Wyk, and Orkmont (III: 941. IV: 258)
The Goodbrothers of Great Wyk have a black-and-gold warhorn on red as their symbol (IV: 18)
The Goodbrothers of Great Wyk have their seat at Hammerhorn amidst the Hardstone Hills. It is as much as six leagues inland from the sea (IV: 20-21)
The Hammerhorn is a large, bulky castle with spiked iron battlements. Its stones were quarried from the cliff that looms behind it, and the entrances to caves and mines can be seen beneath its walls. It's gate is of iron (IV: 22)
There are several branches of the Goodbrothers throughout Great Wyk. Among them are those who hold the towers of Downdelving, Crow Spike Keep, and Corpse Lake (IV: 26)
The Goodbrothers of Orkmont (IV: 258)
The Goodbrothers of Old Wyk have a castle near the shore called Shatterstone, across the island from Nagga's Ribs (IV: 260, 702)

Last revised July 18, 2009
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4.2.3.3. The Harlaws of Harlaw

House Harlaw of Harlaw (I: 689. II: 129, 285)
Longships may moor beneath the castle of Ten Towers (IV: 159)
The head of House Harlaw is styled Lord of the Ten Towers, Lord of Harlaw, and the Harlaw of Harlaw (IV: 159)
The Widow's Tower is one of the ten that make up Ten Towers, receiving its name recently following Lord Harlaw's sister, Lady Gwynesse, taking up permanent residence there out of mourning for her husband who died off Fair Isle during Greyjoy's Rebellion (IV: 160)
Ten Towers is the newest castle on the Iron Islands, raised by Lord Theomore Harlaw some six generations ago (IV: 161-162)
Ten Towers is a strange structure, thanks to Lord Theomore's changable nature. Each tower follows a different plan and design from the next, making it look as if ten castles were squeezed together (IV: 161-162)
Lord Theomore had six wives over the course of his life. After losing three infant sons to the flooded cellars, damp stones, and nitre of his ancestral seat of Harlaw Hall, he resolved to build a new castle (IV: 162)
Ten Towers is warmer, airier, and better sited than Harlaw Hall (IV: 162)
The Book Tower is the broadest of the ten towers, octagonal in shape and made out of great, hewn stones. Its stair is built within the thickness of the walls. It has at least five stories, and is named after Lord Harlaw's library that is kept there (IV: 162)
There is a village associated with Ten Towers (IV: 163)
Harlaw is not the largest of the Iron Islands, but it is the most populous and richest (IV: 165)
The Harlaws have no rival on Harlaw. The Volmarks and Stonetrees have large holdings and many famed captains and warriors, but they bow before the Harlaw. The Myres and Kennings were once bitter foes of the Harlaws, but are now vassals (IV: 165-166)
Among the Harlaw of Harlaws vassals are various cadet branches of the house, each ruling a seat. Among the seats are Harlaw Hall, the Tower of Glimmering sited on a crag above the western coast, Grey Garden, and Harridan Hill (IV: 167)
Lord Rodrik Harlaw's two sons were killed off Fair Isle during Greyjoy's Rebellion (IV: 167)
The Harlaws own a storied Valyrian steel sword, Nightfall (IV: 275)
Harlaw is larger than the Four Shields combined (IV: 436)

Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.3. The Drowned God

The Drowned God is said to have made the ironborn to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and to make their names known in fire and blood and song (II: 125)
Priests wear sea water robes, mottled green and grey and blue, which colors are those of the Drowned God (II: 127, 128. IV: 18)
Priests wear their hair and beards long and braid ropes of dried seaweed through them (II: 128. IV: 18)
One of the ironborn might become a priest of the Drowned God after an experience such as nearly drowning (II: 128)
A priest carries a waterskin filled with sea water (II: 128, 129)
The process of a blessing is that the priest has a person kneel. Using his skin of sea water, he pours a stream of it upon the person's head. As he does this he intones, "Let <person> your servant be born again from the sea, as you were. Bless him with salt, bless him with stone, bless him with steel." Then the kneeling person responds, "What is dead may never die." Finally, the priest closes with, "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger" (II: 129)
The Drowned God brought flame from the sea, and sailed the world with fire and sword (II: 132)
Priests of the Drowned God bless new ships, speaking invocations and pouring sea water over prows (II: 278, 279)
When an ironman drowns, it's said that the Drowned God needed a strong oarsman, and the refrain "What's dead may never die" is used. It is believed he will be feasted in the Drowned God’s watery halls, his every want satisfied by mermaids (II: 281. IV: 20)
Ritual executions, involving the drowning of victims in water (particularly salt water), are made in the Drowned God's name if (for example) someone insults the god (II: 394, 527)
The person who leads should be the one to execute the offering to the Drowned God (II: 394)
"Lord God who drowned for us," is part of the litany of the Drowned God's priests (IV: 17, 28)
Priests of the Drowned God know how to drown a man and then bring him back to life. This is done as part of the rites of the god, consecrating the drowned person to him. Not all men are successfully revived, however (IV: 17-18. TSS: 154)
Drowned men are acolytes of the Drowned God’s priests. They wear mottled robes and carry driftwood cudgels to show their devotion (IV: 17-19)
Some ironborn do not go so far as to drown so that a priest may revive them. Instead, a symbolic drowning takes place shortly after birth where their heads are briefly dipped in seawater and little more (IV: 19)
The Storm God has warred with the Drowned God for a thousand thousand years (IV: 20)
Ravens are said to be the creatures of the Storm God (IV: 22)
Priests of the Drowned God that ironborn must not shed the blood of ironborn, but they believe that methods such as drowning are acceptable (IV: 23)
Priests and their drowned men primarily make use of those things that can be taken from the sea, such as driftwood for makeshift shelters and sealskin for tents (IV: 26)
The Storm God is thought to reside in a cloudy hall (IV: 29)
The shore of Nagga's Cradle, the bay beneath Nagga's Ribs, is considered scared (IV: 255)
A drowned priest is said to be able to sour wells and make women barren with his gaze (IV: 433)
The ironborn have their bodies committed to the sea, so they may find the Drowned God's halls (IV: 435)
The Drowned God was a creation of the Ironborn (SSM: 1)

Last revised July 29, 2009
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4.3.1. The Old Way

The ironmen used to carry woman away as prizes, and kept them as wives whether they wished it or not. A man would have his true wife, his rock bride who was of the islands as he was, and he would have the salt wives captured in raids (II: 124)
In the old days, the ironborn did not labor at farming, fishing, or mining. That was the labor for the captives they brought from their raids. The true trade of the ironmen was warfare (II: 125)
The Old Way had been destroyed when Aegon the Conqueror had burnt Black Harren, gave Harren's kingdom to the rivermen, and the reduced the Iron Islands to an insignificant backwater of a greater realm (II: 125)
The ironborn reavers used to carry burning brands, razing the places they raided (II: 132)
In the Old Way, only women could decorate themselves with baubles bought with coin. Warriors wore only the jewelry they took from the corpses of enemies that they slew themselves. This practice was called "paying the iron price* (II: 135)
Ritual executions, involving the drowning of victims in salt water, are made in the Drowned God's name if (for example) someone insults the god. It is the old way of the ironborn (II: 394)
Ironmen of old were often blood-drunk in battle, so berserk that they felt no pain and feared no enemy (II: 394)
The Old Way extends even to comrades, if one ends their life to save them pain or because they've failed in some matter (II: 395)
During reaving expeditions, the prettier women were taken as salt wives while the crones and ugly ones were simply raped and killed unless they had useful skills and did not seem likely to be troublesome; those became thralls (II: 395)
It is not part of the Old Way to lay siege to castles. Glory can only be gotten by fighting man to man, not by flinging rocks (II: 399)
There are no slaves on the Iron Islands, only thralls. Thralls are bound to service, but they are not property, and a thralls children would be considered free if they were given to the Drowned God. The onl way to win a thrall was to pay the iron price. Selling slaves is not part of the Old Way (IV: 435)

Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.4. Songs, Stories, and Legends

The Grey King of the Age of Heroes, who was supposed to have ruled the western lands and the sea itself, taking a mermaid as his wife (I: 687)
It is said that every captain is a king aboard his own vessel, and so it is little to wonder at that the islands are named the land of the ten thousand kings (II: 123)
The old red tales are still told around the driftwood fires and the smokey hearths all across the islands, even in the high stone halls of Pyke (II: 125)
The Seastone Chair, a massive block of oily black stone carved in the shape of a great kraken, was reputedly found on the shore of Old Wyk by the First Men when they first came to the Iron Islands thousands of years ago (II: 287)
Reaving songs tend to be loud and stormy, telling of dead heroes and deeds of wild valor (II: 398)
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)
Ironmen play fiddles to reaving songs such as "The Bloody Cup" and "Steel Rain" (IV: 260)
It's said in Ironborn legend that Nagga was the first sea dragon, able to feed on leviathins and krakens and to drown whole islands in her wrath until the Grey King slew here and the Drowned God turned her bones to stone. The Grey King turned Nagga's ribs into the beams and pillars of his longhall, and her skull into his throne. In time the hall decayed, leaving only the ribs, and the throne of fangs was swallowed by the sea (IV: 268)
The Grey King is said to have ruled for a thousand years and seven, taking a mermaid to wife, warring against the Storm God, and wearing robes of woven seaweed and tall, pale crown made from the teeth of Nagga (IV: 268)
The Grey King's halls were said to have been warmed by the living fire of Nagga. Tapetries of silver seaweed adorned it, and the Grey King's warriors feasted at a table shaped like a starfish, seated on thrones carved of mother-of-pearl (IV: 268)
The Ironborn believe that in ancient days, men were mightier and longer-lived (IV: 268)

Last revised January 04, 2009
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5. The Riverlands

Tristifer, the Fourth of his Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills, ruled from the Trident to the Neck thousands of years before Jenny of Oldstones and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the Andals. He was called the Hammer of Justice, and the singers say that he fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety. When he raised his castle, now a ruin known only as Oldstones, it was the strongest in Westeros (III: 520)
Tristifer IV was killed in his hundredth battle, when seven Andal kings joined forces against him. His son, Tristifer V, was not his equal, and soon the realm was lost, and the castle, and then the line. With Tristifer V died House Mudd, that had ruled the riverlands for a thousand years before the Andals came (III: 520)
Old King Andahar and his two-headed water horse is mentioned. The "water horse" is a great flat-bottomed oared boat that crosses the Trident at Lord Harroway's Town, controlled by Lord Roote (III: 538, 539. SSM: 1)
Lord Commander Tristan Mudd of the Night's Watch was among a handful of Lords Commander who have been more proud and ambitious than wise, nearly destroying the Watch when they forgot their vows (III: 612)
Snow in autumn is very rare (III: 915)
The smallfolk in the wetlands northwest of Maidenpool are shy and live quite apart from one another. They live in huts made of mud and straw, or in houses built on rickety stilts with rope ladders to be able to enter them above the dunes. They fish in leather coracles or collect clams (IV: 371-372, 374)
Wine is made in the riverlands (TMK: 679)
The riverlands are rich, fertile, and populous (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 04, 2013
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5.1. Geography

The Isle of Faces in the Gods Eye holds the order of the green men, who tend the last remaining weirwoods in the south (I: 19, 617)
A large, three-story stone inn is not far downstream of the ruby ford on the kingsroad. It can hold perhaps 120 people. It was originally called the Old Inn, but it was a successor to other inns that had been there before it for hundreds of years. The Old Inn was raised in the reign of King Jaehaerys, who is said to have stayed there with his queen during their journies. The inn was known as the Two Crowns in their honor. Then a belltower was built, and it was known as the Bellringer Inn. Later a crippled knight, Long John Heddle, took it over wen he was to old to fight. Taking up ironworking, he made a sign for the inn, a black iron three-headed dragon which clanked in the wind and earned the inn a new name, the Clanking Dragon. When his son was old, Daemon Blackfyre rose in rebellion, and the black iron dragon was cut down by Lord Darry, who was fiercely loyal to King Daeron II and ruled the area. The inn became known as the River Inn, as the river was right up against it and some of the rooms were built over the water. The river changed its course in the 220th or 230th year (I: 117. IV: 548)
The ruby ford (probably named so after Rhaegar's death) is at at a bend of the Green Fork of the Trident (I: 124)
The Darry lands and castle are half a day's ride south of the Trident (I: 128)
It takes two weeks to ride from the Trident to King's Landing (I: 164)
There is an inn at the crossroads north of the confluence of the Trident (I: 239)
The inn sits across from a marketplace, and a village with half a hundred white cottages surrounding a small sept is a mile further north (I: 241)
Along the Green Fork are fertile valleys and green woodlands, thriving towns and strong holdfasts and the castles of the river lords (I: 241)
The towns and villages of Sherrer, Wendish Town, and Mummer's Ford (I: 387)
The holdfast of Wendish Town is timbered, while that of Sherrer is of stone (I: 388)
The Mummer's Ford is upriver of Sherrer (I: 388)
There's no crossing on the Green Fork south of the Twins until the ruby ford (I: 505)
A small pinched valley called the Whispering Wood, a stream running its rocky way along its floor. It is south of the Blue Fork (I: 581, 582, 660. III: 518)
There are roads which lead north through the riverlands besides the kingsroad, but many are narrow and little more than unmaintained ruts through weeds. Traffic on these is small (II: 101)
The land south of the God's Eye is made up of rolling hills, terraced fields, meadows, woodlands, and valleys where willows crowd near slow and shallow streams (II: 101)
Cutting west away from the kingsroad, south of the God's Eye, the land is more forested, the villages and holdfasts smaller and further apart, and the hills are higher while the valleys are deeper (II: 102)
A holdfast named Briarwhite (II: 103)
Some eight or nine hours south of the place where the God's Eye meets the river, a covered wooden bridge can be found (II: 157)
There is a town where the God's Eye and its river meet, with a stone holdfast and a towerhouse for its lord (II: 157)
On the north edge of the God's Eye is Harrentown (II: 157)
A river track runs along the east side of the river flowing from the God's Eye, although it's use is not difficult for all that it is unpaved (II: 157)
The God's Eye is so large that the far shore cannot be seen from its edge (II: 158)
The town where the God's Eye and the river meet is made up of white houses spread out around the walls of the holdfast, a large sept with a shingled wooden roof, and the lord's towerhouse on a small rise to the west. There is an inn built on pilings directly over the water of the lake, and docks to east and west of it (II: 158)
The town's holdfast has gates studded with iron nails, which can be barred from within bars of iron the size of saplings which fit into post holes in the ground and metal brackets on the gate; when slotted through the brackets, the bars make a large X brace (II: 160)
The walls of the holdfast are of rough unmortared stone some teen feet high, with a wooden catwalk inside the battlements. There is a postern gate to the north (II: 160)
Within the holdfast, an old wooden barn large enough to have held half the animals in the town, has a trap which leads to a tunnel. The tunnel is long and damp, and opens near the lake (II: 160)
The holdfast's haven is even larger than the barn, built of stone (II: 160)
There is a large kitchen in the holdfast (II: 160)
The towerhouse of the lord of the town on the edge of the God's Eye has only one entrance, a second-story door that can only be reached by a ladder (II: 213)
Along the eastern shore of the God's Eye there are many villages, farms, castles, septs, and barns (II: 213)
Village roofs of thatch, and a rare one with slate roofing (II:2 15)
Harrenhal is near the fords of the Trident which provide access to the lands south of it (II: 235)
Marching north following the shore of the God's Eye, there comes a point where the trees thin and give way to rolling hills, meandering streams, sunlit fields, and various holdfasts. Another day's march will bring Harrenhal to view, hard against the lake (II: 307)
Just west of Harrenhal is a town, probably Harrentown (II: 308)
There's a place called the Rushing Falls (II: 336)
There is a for upstream of Riverrun on the Red Fork, where the river makes a wide loop and the water becomes muddy and shallow (II: 411)
South of Riverrun the land is open and flat for miles (II: 479)
From a tower in Riverrun, the nearest of the fords of the Red Fork is just barely visible miles to the south (II: 479)
There are more than four fords on the Red Fork upriver of Riverrun (II: 479, 481)
The west bank of the Red Fork is higher than the east and well wooded (II: 480)
There is a ford six leagues to the south of Riverrun (II: 481)
A place called Stone Mill on the Red Fork (II: 483)
An army might march from the upriver fords of the Red Fork to the headwaters of the Blackwater Rush in about 5 days times (II: 484)
The villages of Hag's Mire and Sevenstreams, in the Frey lands, lie at the very beginning of the Blue Fork and can be gone through to go around the river (III: 5, 6, 518)
The southern bank of the Red Fork is rich with smooth red clay, while the northern bank is wilder wth highy rocky bluffs rising up twenty feet and crowned with stands of beech, oak, and chestnut (III: 19)
The forks of the Trident are the easiest way to move goods or men across the riverlands. In times of peace fisherfolk in skiffs, grain barges poled downstream, merchants on floating ships, and even brightly painted mummer's boats with quilted sails of many colors could be found on the rivers (III: 20)
The Red Fork is wide and slow, a meandering river of loops and bends dotted with small wooded islets and often choked by sandbars and snags (III: 20)
River galleys with as many as eighteen oars can navigate the Red Fork (III: 23)
There are woods and streams not far north of Harrenhal (III: 35)
The land north of Harrenhal grows progressively hillier (III: 39)
There are several rivers between Harrenhal and the Trident: the Darry, the Greenapple, the Maiden, the Little Willow, the Big Willow, Rippledown Rill, and perhaps others (III: 39, 40)
The Little Willow flows into the Big Willow, which in turn flows into the Trident (III: 40)
Rippledown Rill loops around and flows towards Harrenhal and the God's Eye (III: 40)
There is a large inn hugging the south bank of the Red Fork at the point in which the river bends southeastwards. The main building is two stories, made of grey stone on the lower and of whitewashed wood on the upper, with the roof made of slate. There are stables, a smithy, an arbor heavy with vines, apples trees, and a small garden. At the end of it's dock is sign hanging from an iron post that represents a king upon his knees with his hands together in the gesture of fealty. The inn is named the Inn of the Kneeling Man, and is said to stand on the spot where the last King of the North offered his submission to Aegon the Conqueror (III: 120, 125, 148)
The Red Fork can be sailed down its entire length, allowing access as far as Maidenpool (III: 123)
More than thirty miles downriver from the Inn of the Kneeling Man but before the ruby ford are the Skipping Stones and Red Deer Island (III: 123)
Six miles downstream from the Inn of the Kneeling Man is a village, where the road spits. Turning south from there one will come across a stone towerhouse, while continuing on the road leads through the woods south by east (III: 125, 126)
The Red Fork is very broad where it bends southeastwards, but shallow, its banks all mud and reeds (III: 126)
A mile or two southeast from the Inn of the Kneeling there's a brook that flows into the Trident (III: 148)
Lambswold (III: 151)
The Trident is generally muddy (III: 151)
Tumbler's Falls is on the Blackwater Rush (III: 164)
Maidenpool is a town (III: 235)
From Maidenpool one can take the Duskendale road south (III: 236)
There is a shallow brook not far from Maidenpool to the south (III: 239)
The small square keep of House Lychester has a little stone bridge behind it (III: 246)
The Hayford road is some three days ride from the keep of the Lychesters (III: 247)
The village of Sallydance is some four days ride from the keep of the Lychesters. It has 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)
High Heart is a huge hill a day's ride from Sallydance. About its top stand the stumps of thirty-one once-mighty weirwoods, so wide around that a child could use one for a bed. It is so tall that its peak is above low-lying storms (III: 249, 489)
The smallfolk shun High Heart, saying it was haunted by ghosts of the children who had died there when the Andal king Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down the grove (III: 249)
Acorn Hall is a long day's ride from High Heart (III: 251)
Acorn Hall is beside a brook (III: 251)
The Threepenny wood (III: 253)
Blackbottom Bend is probably near to Acorn Hall (III: 253)
Stoney Sept is a large town less than a fortnight from Acorn Hall. It is greater than the castleton of Harrenhal, and is walled for its protection. Its sept stands upon a hill, with a stout holdfast of grey stone below it that seems too small for such a large town. It was the site of the Battle of the Bells during Robert's War (III: 253, 327, 328)
Stoney Sept is near the Blackwater Rush (III: 328)
At the heart of Stoney Sept is its market square. A fountain stands there, shaped to look like a leaping trout spouting water into a shallow pool. On the east side there's a modest inn and brothel with whitewashed walls, a wooden shingle above the door painted with its namesake, a peach with a bite taken out of it; its stable sits catty-corner in relation to it (III: 328, 330, 332)
Stoney Sept is near to Tumbler's Falls (III: 329)
Somewhere in the riverlands there is a hollow hill, tangles of weirwood roots showing. It in an old place of refuge, deep and secret (III: 381)
Donnelwood (III: 385)
Sludgy Pond (III: 385)
Fieldstone (III: 385)
Mousedown Mill (III: 385)
Lancewood (III: 385)
Shermer's Grove (III: 385)
The Tumblestone is swift and wild, plunging like a spear into the side of the broad Red Fork at Riverrun, its blue-white current churning the muddy red-brown flow of the greater river (III: 393)
There is an abandoned village half a day's ride north of High Heart, with a grey stone stable. It belonged to Lord Goodbrook, but when he stayed loyal to the king even after the Tullys declared for Robert, Lord Hoster came down on him with fire and sword (III: 493, 497)
Acorn Hall is not far from Lord Goodbrook's burnt out village (III: 498)
Six miles east of Harrenhal stands the lake road which runs southwards. A few miles down that road there is a mill, now deserted (III: 501)
Fairmarket has a wooden bridge that crosses the Blue Fork. It is some five days ride from the Whispering Wood (III: 518)
Ramsford on the Blue Fork, where men and horses can cross the river (III: 518)
There is a bridge further upstream from Ramsford, near Oldstones. It is older than the one at Fairmarket, and smaller (III: 518)
There are other fords in the region of Oldstones, Ramsford, and Fairmarket (III: 519)
Oldstones is some eight days slow riding from Fairmarket. It is a ruined stronghold of the ancient river kings, built upon a hill overlooking the Blue Fork (III: 519)
Oldstones foundations remain to show where the walls and keep had stood, but long ago the stones had been quarried by local smallfolk. Its curtain wall once encircled the brow of the hill (III: 519, 920)
In the center of what once would have been Oldstones' yard, a great carved sepulcher still rests amidst a stand of ash and high grass. The lid is carved into the likeness of the man whose bones lay beneath it, but the rain and wind have weathered it so that only the beard can be seen obviously, the face only vaguely suggesting nose, mouth, eyes, and crown. His hands hold a stone warhammer once carved with runes that would have told its name and history, but those had been worn away over the centuries (III: 520)
Oldstones is the name given to the place by the local smallfolk. No one remembers its original name, when it was still a hall of kings (III: 520)
The castle at Oldstones was raised by Tristifer IV, King of the Rivers and the Hills, who ruled a kingdom that had stood a thousand years before the Andals came. Tristifer was killed in his hundredth battle when seven Andal kings ranged against him, and his son Tristifer V lost the realm, the castle, and then his life, ending the line of House Mudd (III: 520)
Sevenstreams is at least some days from Oldstones, and is named for the confusion of rills and brooks that flow into the Blue Fork (III: 523)
The Cape of Eagles is near Seagard (III: 525)
Lord Roote controls Lord Harroway's Town and the "two-headed water horse of Old King Andahar", which is a great flat-bottomed oared ferry that goes back and forth across the Trident. Harroway town has a seven-sided domed sept, an inn, many houses, and a stone roundtower holdfast (III: 538, 539, 540, 545. SSM: 1)
After crossing the Trident at Lord Harroway's Town, there's about a day's ride from the north bank to the kingsroad (III: 545)
The road connecting the eastern side of the Twins to the kingsroad runs mostly northwest, but turns west between an apple orchard and a field as it approaches the castle (III: 570)
Saltpans is a town with a small castle, a port, and a sept. It stands about week's ride along the Trident from the ruby ford, where the river empties into the Bay of Crabs (III: 846, 852, 853)
South by east from the stone inn near the ruby ford, there are weedy fields, woods, and marshes. One can ride for hours before reaching the Trident (III: 849)
The overgrown and stony road up to Oldstones winds twice around its hill before reaching the summit. Beneath the ruins, the lower slopes of the hill are thickly forested (III: 915)
Many of the people of Sevenstreams are closely related (III: 920)
The godswood of Oldstones is still intact (III: 921)
There’s at least one holy house for brothers of the Faith near Maidenpool (IV: 137)
The Stinking Goose is an unsavory tavern near Maidenpool’s harbor, frequented by sailors (IV: 138, 205)
A septry on an isle hard by the mouth of the Trident near to the town of Saltpans (IV: 176)
Maidenpool has at least two gates, one of which is on the east side (IV: 205)
Gulltown is a short sea voyage away from Maidenpool (IV: 206)
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)
A crooked track following the Bay of Crabs goes northwest from Maidenpool. The sparsely populated lands there are low wetlands with sandy dunes and salt marshes (IV: 371)
It's said that the tidal mudflats along the Bay of Crabs can be dangerous, with places where a man might be swallowed up if he steps wrong (IV: 373)
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, which in turn is perhaps a week's ride north of King's Landing (IV: 400)
The land immediately north of the boundary stream are ruled by the knights of House Wode, who are sworn to Harrenhal (IV: 400)
Half a mile from the southern shore of the Bay of Crabs, across the water from Saltpans which lies to the north, is an upthrust island crowned by a prosperous septry. The isle is known as the Quiet Isle, because the brothers are penitents who swear vows of silence. It is surrounded by tidal flats, teeming with life. When the tide is out, a winding walk can be made to reach it which might extend a mile and a half or more as one avoids quicksand (IV: 460-461)
The currents where the Trident empties into the Bay of Crabs are often at war with one another, so that many unusual things can be found washed up on the shores of the Quiet Isle and other places (IV: 465)
Saltpans was not an important port (IV: 468)
Before the river changes its course, there was a ferry at the inn by the crossing which carried travellers across the river so they could continue on to Lord Harroway's Town and Whitewalls (IV: 548)
The Trident used to move right past the old inn near its crossing, but in 220 or 230 the river changed its course (IV: 548)
The old inn at the crossing is west of Saltpans (IV: 548)
Nutten and Riverbend are two villages or towns between the old inn at the crossing and Lord Harroway's Town (IV: 552)
The old inn at the crossing is known as a chief crossroads, where the kingsroad, the river road following the Red Fork, and the high road into the vale meet (IV: 552-553)
The Tumblestone is depper and swifter than the Red Fork near Riverrun, and the nearest fording there is leagues upstream (IV: 568)
There is a lake some six days' ride from Stoney Sept, probably the God's Eye, which had an inn by the shore in the days of King Aerys I (TMK: 651)
The inn beside the lake, probably the God's Eye, is described as a large, rambling timber structure with turrets. Wooden planks along the lake shore lead to a landing for a ferry (which takes approximately more than an hour for its journey back and forth), and part of the structure is built on pylons over the water. Nearby in the woods are a ring of stumps from an ancient weirwood grove (TMK: 659, 661, 667)
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)
The riverlands lack natural defensible boundaries, compared to some other regions (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.1.1. Trade and Resources

In times of peace fisherfolk in skiffs, grain barges poled downstream, merchants on floating ships, and even brightly painted mummer's boats with quilted sails of many colors could be found on the rivers (III: 20)
With so much trade on the rivers, villagers will haul their grain and other goods to it to see it sold and carried elsewhere by the merchants (III: 126)
Maidenpool has a busy harbor (IV: 138, 205)
Fisherfolk northwest of Maidenpool fish the waters in leather coracles. Others collect clams (IV: 371-372)
Wine can be made from small, tart grapes grown in the riverlands (IV: 464)
The riverlands are rich and fertile (SSM: 1)

Last revised October 13, 2010
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5.2. The Tullys

The Tullys have river galleys with as many as eighteen oars at their command (III: 23)
The Tullys are not known for surrending easily (III: 32)
The Tullys send their dead into the river that gave them their strength. Lords are laid in slender wooden boats, clad in shining silver plate and mail armor, cloaks spread about them. A helm is placed beside their head, a shield is laid at their side, a sword is gripped in their hands is upon their chests, and a hunting horn is at their other side. The rest of the boat is filled with driftwood and kindly and scraps of parchment, and stones to make it heavy in the water (III: 392)
Seven men are chosen to push a funeral boat into the river, to honor the seven faces of god (III: 392)
The funeral boats have square sails and are rigged to run down the center channel of the Red Fork into the rising sun (III: 393)
The funeral boat is set alight by the lord's heir, using a bow and fire arrows (III: 393)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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5.2.1. Riverrun

Riverrun sits on the Red Fork of the Trident (I: 18)
The godswood is a bright and airy garden, with redwoods, flowers, nesting birds, and streams. (I: 18)
Riverrun has a low bailey (I: 367)
Riverrun's water stair, connected to the lower bailey, leads to one of the rivers (I: 367)
The battlements of Riverrun is crenelated and has arrow loops (I: 581)
A siege of Riverrun, in order to succeed, must have three separate camps separated by rivers. There is no other way (I: 582)
Riverrun is situated on the point where the Tumblestone River flows into the Red Fork. When danger threatens, sluice gates can be opened to fill a wide moat and leave the castle surrounded on all three sides by water (I: 638)
Riverrun's walls rise sheer from the water (I: 638)
Riverrun commands a view of many miles (I: 638)
Riverrun's moat is west of the rivers (I: 638)
The Tumblestone, north of Riverrun, has a strong current (I: 656)
The Wheel Tower has a great waterwheel within it which is turned by the Tumblestone whose waters go through it (I: 656)
Below the Wheel Tower one makes a wide turn and ends up in churning waters. Eventually one can reach the Water Gate (I: 656)
The Water Gate is named so for being half in the water. Its iron portcullis is red with rust in its lower half, and the last foot drips with mud when raised (I: 656)
Many boats are tied up within the Water Gate, secured to iron rings in the walls (I: 657)
The water stair leads up from the Water Gate (I: 657)
Riverrun's walls are massive, made of sandstone (I: 657)
Riverrun's guardsmen wear fish-crested helms (I: 658)
The inner keep is triangular, like Riverrun itself, and the lord's solar is triangular as well with a stone balcony jutting eastwards. The solar can be reached by a spiral stairway (I: 658)
Riverrun's godswood has a slender, carved weirwood (I: 661)
Ivy climbs up the Wheel Tower (I: 661)
Mint grows in Riverrun's godswood (I: 661)
Large councils are held in the Great Hall, where the high seat of the Tullys sits (I: 662)
The lord's solar commands a view of the east where the Tumblestone and Red Fork meet (II: 86)
Riverrun's sept is made of sandstone, set amidst gardens. Painted marble images represent the Seven (II: 476)
Riverrun has a brewhouse (II: 476)
Inside Riverrun, the doors are made of heavy redwood (II: 484)
The dungeons of Riverrun are windowless (II: 575)
The doors of the dungeon cells are heavy and made of wood and iron (II: 576)
The walls of the worst cells are patched with nitre (II: 576)
Through the stones of the dungeon walls the rush of the Tumblestone can be faintly heard (II: 576)
Skiffs are kept at the castle to use on the river (III: 16)
The lord's bedchamber is dominated by a huge bed with posts carved to look like leaping trouts (III: 28)
The bedchamber is half a turn up the tower steps from the lord's solar (III: 28)
The balcony outside the solar is triangular in shape, and has a rough stone balustrade (III: 28)
The steward of Riverrun carries a staff with which he bangs the floor to call people forward for their audience or to call the end of audience and dismiss everyone (III: 157, 158)
There is a private audience chamber above the Great Hall with a high seat for the lord and a bell to ring for servants (III: 162, 163)
The Water Gate is arched (III: 393)
Properly garrisoned, Riverrun can hold supplies for men and horses for as long as two years (IV: 491)
The Tumblestone is depper and swifter than the Red Fork near Riverrun, and the nearest fording there is leagues upstream (IV: 568)
A garrison of two hundred men is larger than Riverrun requires in most circumstances (IV: 660)

Last revised July 18, 2009
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5.2.2. Ancestors and History

The Tullys were never kings, but they held rich lands and the castle of Riverrun for a thousand years (I: 684)
During the Wars of Conquest, the riverlands belonged to Harren the Black, King of the Isles (I: 684)
Harren's grandfather, Harwyn Hardhand, took the Trident from Arrec the Storm King whose ancestors had won lands up to the Neck three hundred years earlier by killing the last River King (I: 684)
The first of the riverlords to desert the unloved Harren the Black for Aegon's host was Edmyn Tully (I: 684)
Aegon raised Lord Edmyn Tully to overlordship of the Trident, requiring all other lords to swear fealty to him (I: 684)
Harren the Black beggared the Iron Islands and the riverlands to make Harrenhal. He had completed Harrenhal and had finally taken up residence when on that very day word came of Aegon the Conqueror's landing. (II: 88)
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)
Lady Minisa Tully died in childbed trying to give Hoster Tully a second son. The boy died with her (II: 363)
Lord Tywin considered marrying his heir Jaime to Lysa Tully of Riverrun (III: 128)
Lord Hoster Tully's father died more than thirty years ago, as Catelyn Tully was too young to remember his funeral (III: 395)
Counting Lord Hoster, Walder Frey has known four Lord Tullys (III: 559)
By 211, Lord Tully was a boy of 8, and was considered incapable of stopping the Blackwoods and Brackens from entering into private war (TSS: 122)
Ser Brynden Tully won renown fighting the Ninepenny Kings (IV: 495)
Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta and Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun together served as squires to Lord Darry (IV: 567)
Young Lord Tully did not attend Lord Butterwell's wedding (TMK: 674)
The Mudds and Fishers were two dynasties of River Kings (among many) who were ended in wars (SSM: 1)
The Andal invasion ended the line of the Mudds, who were the last of the First Men to be River Kings (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2013
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5.2.3. Bannerhouses

House Ryger, whose arms are a green willow on white (I: 241. II: 412. III: 24)
House Mooton (I: 241)
House Wode, knights sworn to Harrenhal who hold two earth-and-timber keeps just north of the stream that separates the riverland from the lands owing fealty to King's Landing (I: 276. IV: 400)
House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest (I: 387. III: 961)
House Piper of Pinkmaiden Castle, with a naked dancing maiden for their sigil (I: 257, 388. II: 412. III: 956, 960, 961. IV: 488)
The Pipers tend to be small (I: 388. IV: 488)
House Paege, ruled by a knight (II: 412. IV: 731)
House Grell (II: 412)
House Wayn (II: 412)
House Ryger (II: 412)
The Tullys can muster at least 11,000 men (and this is with the loss of men in war and the need to give some over to the harvest) (II: 416)
The Lothstons ruled Harrenhal before the Whents, and within living memory. The last of them was killed several generation's ago. They had a black reputation (II: 497. IV: 60)
House Erenford, sworn to House Frey. Their sigil is a heron (II: 739. IV: 569)
Ser Myles Mooton had been a squire to Prince Rhaegar, and remained his close companion after winning his knighthood from Rhaegar's own hand (III: 90)
The Mootons rule Maidenpool (III: 235)
Maidenpool takes its name from the pool where Florian the Fool was said to have first glimped Jonquil bathing with her sisters (III: 235)
House Lychester has a small square keep (III: 246, 247)
All of Lord Lychester's sons died in Robert's Rebellion, some on one side and some on the other (III: 247)
Acorn Hall is a great oaken keep with stone curtain walls, but even so is accounted a rather small castle. It's master is Lord Smallwood, who is vassal to Lord Vance (III: 251, 253)
House Charlton, sworn to house Frey. Their sigil is three springs of misteltoe (III: 385. IV: 569)
House Roote (III: 385)
The wealthy House Deddings (III: 385)
There is an abandoned village half a day’s ride north of High Heart, with a grey stone stable. It belonged to Lord Goodbrook, but when he stayed loyal to the king even after the Tullys declared for Robert, Lord Hoster came down on him with fire and sword (III: 493, 497)
House Roote controls Lord Harroway's Town and the "two-headed water horse of Old King Andahar", which is a great flat-bottomed oared ferry that goes back and forth across the Trident (III: 538, 539, 545)
House Vypren is a noble family (III: 564)
House Haigh, its emblem a pitchfork. They are sworn to House Frey (III: 564. IV: 569)
Myles Smallwood was renowned for courage in his day, but he was a failure as Hand to his king (III: 604)
House Vance of Atranta (III: 961. IV: 567)
At least one knight of House Smallwood fought at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 110)
House Butterwell, whose lord was Hand to Daeron II during the early part of the first Blackfyre Rebellion, raised a castle called Whitewalls (TSS: 110. TMK: 655)
Manfred Lothston betrayed Daemon Blackfyre, which may have been a pivotal factor in his defeat and death (TSS: 135)
Lord Lucas the Pander and his son, Manfryd of the Black Hood, were infamous Lothstons (IV: 60)
A story is told that Mad Danelle Lothston sent out giant black bats of Harrenhal out to collect bad children for her cooking pots (IV: 132)
Maidenpool has at least two gates, one of which on the east side of the town (IV: 205)
The Mootons have in the past attempted to send tax collectors into Crackclaw Point, despite the people there being sworn directly to the Iron Throne. If they are sent in force, a handful might return alive (IV: 283)
A crooked track following the Bay of Crabs goes northwest from Maidenpool. The lands there are low wetlands with sandy dunes and salt marshes (IV: 371)
Lord Mooton's rule extends at least a day's ride to the northwest, in the sparsely populated wetlands. The wetlands are a poor region, easily ignored in the midst of a war (IV: 372)
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, which in turn is perhaps a week's ride north of King's Landing (IV: 400)
The Knight of Saltpans is of House Cox (IV: 454, 466, 738)
The castle at Saltpans is a square keep within a curtain wall, built to overlook the harbor (IV: 549)
Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta and Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun together served as squires to Lord Darry (IV: 567)
A septon preaching against Bloodraven and King Aerys, galling for an uprising in the name of the Blackfyres, was beheaded for treason and his head was displayed on a spike on the walls of Stoney Sept (TMK: 650)
Lord Shawney attended Lord Butterwell's wedding tourney at Whitewalls (TMK: 659)
It was said that Lord Butterwell had the finest vintages of wine north of the Arbor. He was said to be both very rich and very pious, with the wealth coming from cattle. Both his sons, who fought on either side of the Blackfyre Rebellion, died in the fighting, and his youngest child died during the Great Spring Sickness. This led him to take a bride from House Frey, to attempt to continue the family name (TMK: 662)
Ser Morgan Dunstable of Tumbler's Falls, in the reign of Aerys I (TMK: 663)
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. Butterwell's grandson, the new Lord Butterwell, would make it the prize at his wedding tourney at Whitewalls (TMK: 663)
Lord Shawney fought on the right with Bittersteel at the Battle of the Redgrass Field, and was nearly killed there (TMK: 667)
Whitewalls was a new castle early in the reign of Aerys I, only forty years old and raised by the grandsire of the Lord Butterwell of that time. The smallfolk called it the Milkhouse, because all of its walls and towers were wrought in finely dress white stone brought from the Vale at great expense. Its floors and pillars were white marble veined with gold, and the rafters were carved from the trunks of weirwoods (TMK: 669)
In the reign of Aerys I, the Freys married a daughter of the family to Lord Butterwell, who had been left without heirs after the Blackfyre Rebellion and the Great Spring Sickness. It's claimed that this marriage happened because Lord Frey's daughter had been caught abed with a scullion by her young brother, the heir Walder Frey, who screamed when he saw them in congress (TMK: 662, 679)
Lord Butterwell's sons fought on both sides during the first Blackfyre Rebellion (TMK: 687)
Lord Smallwood's nephew broke his wrist during Lord Butterwell's wedding tourney in the reign of Aerys I (TMK: 694)
The red-haired Mad Danelle Lothston, wearing close-fitted black armor, came in strength to Whitewalls with the host raised by Lord Bloodraven (TMK: 731)
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)

Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.2.3.1. The Freys of the Twins

The lord of the House is styled Lord of the Crossing (I: 533)
The Freys can gather nearly 4,000 soldiers (I: 533)
The Freys have held the crossing for six hundred years and grown wealthy on the fees for making use of their bridge (I: 535)
The bridge of the Twins is a massive arch of grey rock wide enough for two wagons to cross abreast. The Water Tower rises in the middle and commands road and river with arrow slits, murder holes, and portcullises (I: 535)
It had taken the Freys three generations to complete their bridge. When they finished, they raised stout wooden keeps at either end (I: 535)
Now the ends of the bridge are defended by squat, ugly, formidable castles that look exactly alike; high curtain walls, moats, oak-and-iron gates, the bridge footings starting from the inner keeps, barbicans and portcullises on either bank. The arrangement has been so for centuries (I: 535, 536)
The seat of the Freys is a tall chair of black oak, the back carved in the shape of two towers linked by a bridge (I: 538)
A game that may be unique to Frey children 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)
House Erenford, sworn to House Frey. Their sigil is a heron (II: 739. IV: 569)
The villages of Hag's Mire and Sevenstreams are within the Frey lands, which seem to extend to the beginnings of the Blue Fork, and perhaps even beyond (III: 5, 6, 518)
At the Twins some say that eating frogs as the crannogmen do will cause teeth to turn green and moss to grow from armpits (III: 104)
The Freys can gather a force of some 1,000 horse and nearly 3,000 foot, and still leaving themselves with a strong garrison (III: 160)
Other houses of greater lineage look down on the Freys as upstarts (III: 162)
The Freys have sought to conquer Greywater in the Neck in the past, and have always failed. They do not like the crannogmen even still, however, and the crannogmen expect to be attacked by them (III: 278, 280)
House Charlton, sworn to house Frey. Their sigil is three springs of misteltoe (III: 385. IV: 569)
Counting Lord Hoster, Walder Frey has known four Lord Tullys (III: 559)
House Haigh, its emblem a pitchfork. They are sworn to House Frey (III: 564. IV: 569)
Merrett Frey, one of Lord Walder's sons by his third wife, served alongside Jaime Lannister as squire to Lord Sumner Crakehall. He was captured by Wenda the White Fawn and then ransomed, but shortly after took a blow to the head from one of the outlaws of the Kingswood Brotherhood that ended his fighting days (III: 916, 918, 920)
In the reign of Aerys I, the Freys married a daughter of the family to Lord Butterwell, who had been left without heirs after the Blackfyre Rebellion and the Great Spring Sickness. It's claimed that this marriage happened because Lord Frey's daughter had been caught abed with a scullion by her young brother, the heir Walder Frey, who screamed when he saw them in congress (TMK: 662, 679)
Ser Addam Frey, a cousin to Lord Butterwell's bride, was defeated at the wedding tourney by Ser Uthor Underleaf, a hedge knight called the Snail (TMK: 695)
Lord Frey abandoned the conspiracy to crown Daemon Blackfyre 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)
Lord Frey was permitted to depart Whitewalls by Lord Bloodraven, without any apparent loss to himself (TMK: 734)

Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.2.3.2. The Whents of Harrenhal

House Wode, knights sworn to Harrenhal who hold two earth-and-timber keeps just north of the stream that separates the riverland from the lands owing fealty to King's Landing (I: 276. IV: 400)
Harrenhal was a seat of kings (I: 643)
Harren the Black and his line died in the burning of Harrenhal by Aegon the Conqueror (I: 684)
Harren had desired the highest hall and the most colossal towers in the Seven Kingdoms. The construction of his dream took forty years. Thousands of captives from the other realms died in the quarries chained to sledges or laboring on the five huge towers. Weirwoods were cut down to provide rafters and beams (II: 88)
Every house that has held Harrenhal since Harren the Black died has met misfortune and it is believed to be cursed (II: 88)
On the north edge of the God's Eye is Harrentown (II: 157)
Ghosts are said to dwell in Harrenhal (II: 157)
Harrenhal is one of the richest castles in the Seven Kingdoms. Its lands are broad and rich and fertile (II: 202)
Harrenhal is near the fords of the Trident which provide access to the lands south of it (II: 235)
Stories have it that Harren the Black mixed the blood of children into the mortar of Harrenhal (II: 307)
Just west of Harrenhal is a town, probably Harrentown (II: 308)
Harrenhal is built on a gigantic scale, its colossal curtain walls sheer and high as mountain cliffs while atop the battlements the wood-and-iron scorpions seem as small as their namesakes when seen from the ground (II: 308)
Harrenhal's gatehouse is as large as Winterfell's Great Keep, and its stone is discoloured and fissured (II: 308)
From outside the gatehouse, only the tops of five immense towers can be seen because of the height of the walls obscure the view of them (II: 308)
The shortest of Harrenhal's towers is half again as high as the tallest one in Winterfell, yet none of the towers are proper; they're bent and lumped and cracked from the melting of the stone by the Targaryen dragons centuries earlier (II: 308)
Harrenhal's bathhouse is large and made of stone and timber. It's on the edge of the Flowstone Yard (II: 308, 655)
The occupied towers of Harrenhal are so large that they each have an understeward (II: 309)
No one remembers the names that Harren the Black gave to his towers, but now they are called the Tower of Dread, the Widow's Tower, the Wailing Tower, the Tower of Ghosts, and Kingspyre Tower (II: 334)
There are cavernous vaults beneath the Wailing Tower (II: 334)
Harrenhal's kitchens are inside of a round stone building with a domed roof (II: 334)
Servants would eat at the trestle table in the undercrofts of the towers (II: 334)
There's a forge in Harrenhal (II: 334)
Much of Harrenhal is far gone in decay. The Whents used only the lower thirds of two of the five towers, letting the rest go to ruin (II: 334)
Men-at-arms eat in the Barracks Hall above the armory (II: 335)
The ground floor of the Wailing Tower is given over to storerooms and granaries. The two floors above would be used to house a garrison (II: 335)
The upper stories of the Wailing Tower have not been occupied for eighty years (II: 335)
The topmost stories of the towers are infested with nests of huge black bats (II: 335)
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)
The Wailing Tower is named so because it wails when the wind blows from the north and the air runs through the cracks made by the heat of the burning (II: 335)
The Kingspyre Tower is still the tallest of the towers, but it's lopsided under the weight of the slagged stone that make it look like a candle (II: 335)
Harrenhal covers three times as much ground as Winterfell and its buildings are so much larger that they can scarcely be compared. Its stables house a thousand horses, its godswood covers 20 acres, its kitchens are as large as Winterfell's Great Hall (II: 336)
Harrenhal's great hall is named the Hall of a Hundred Hearths but it has only thirty-three or thirty-five hearths. They are huge, however, with about ten feet separating each (II: 336. III: 421)
An entire army of thousands could be feasted in the hall (II: 336)
Walls, doors, halls, and steps are all built to a giant scale (II: 336)
The Flowstone Yard with its lumpy surface is where men-at-arms and knights might exercise and where squires clean arms and armor (II: 338, 400)
There is a covered gallery above the Flowstone Yard with arches looking towards it (II: 339)
The east gates are portcullised (II: 339)
Harrenhal has a brewhouse (II: 403)
A stone bridge arches between the Widow's Tower and Kingspyre (II: 403)
There is a great cell under the Widow's Tower that's used to keep prisoners (II: 495)
When empty, Harrenhal seems strange. Sometimes the stones seem to soak up sound, while at other times echoes are amplified many times over (II: 496)
Crossing the middle bailey, one can go around the Tower of Dread to reach the mews where falcons were once raised (and are now said to exist there only as ghosts) (II: 496)
The castellan's chambers in Kingspyre are as spacious as that of a lord's (II: 496)
There are cellars beneath Kingspyre (II: 496)
Harrenhal's forge is in the armory (II: 496)
The Lothstons ruled Harrenhal before the Whents, and within living memory. The last of them was killed several generation's ago. They had a black reputation (II: 497. IV: 60)
Harrenhal's godswood has a small stream running through it (II: 498)
Harrenhal has a weirwood heart tree, its face carved into a terrible visage full of hatred with a twisted mouth and flaring eyes (II: 499)
An arched span of bridge divides the outer and the middle wards (II: 501)
The Barracks Hall and the armory are across the ward from where the godswood is (II: 501)
Just inside the door into the Widow's Tower is a winding stair leading down to the dungeons. The steps reach a dank stone vault which is long, gloomy, and windowless. Scones on the walls hold torches (II: 503)
The vault is separated from the cell by heavy iron bars (II: 503)
Harrenhal's middle ward has a bear pit (II: 507)
There is a well in the Flowstone Yard (II: 648)
There is a privy shaft in the lord's chambers (II: 655)
The great solar for the lord of Harrenhal is down half a flight of stairs from the bedchamber. It is a spare, draughty room which is as large as the halls of many smaller castles (II: 654)
There is a huge oaken table in the lord's solar (II: 654)
To get to the godswood from Kingspyre, a person must pass the Wailing Tower (II: 657)
Kingspyre's cellar has narrow windows (II: 658)
There's a loft in the forge where apprentices sleep (II: 658)
There's a postern in the east wall behind the Tower of Ghosts (II: 658)
The godswood is walled (II: 659)
The Tower of Ghosts is the most ruinous of the Harrenhal's towers. It stands behind the remains of a sept that collapsed when the Targaryens burned the castle with their dragons (II: 660)
Weeds grow between the broke stones about the Tower of Ghosts (II: 660)
The postern near the Tower of Ghosts is one of the least of Harrenhal's gates, being a narrow door of strong oak studded with iron nails set in an angle of the wall beneath a defensive tower (II: 660)
There are woods and streams not far north of Harrenhal (III: 35)
The land north of Harrenhal grows progressively hillier (III: 39)
There are several rivers between Harrenhal and the Trident: the Darry, the Greenapple, the Maiden, the Little Willow, and perhaps others (III: 39)
The Little Willow flows into the Big Willow, which in turn flows into the Trident (III: 40)
Many great lords came from all over Westeros to witness or take part in Lord Whent's tourney. Mace Tyrell was among them, and so were northerners from the barrowlands, Hornwoods, Mormonts, and Manderlys (III: 280, 281)
Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard was Lord Whent's brother. He and his four nephews swore to defend Lord Whent's daughter as queen of love and beauty (III: 280. SSM: 1)
The walls of Harrenhal are so thick that passing beneath them feels like passing through a stone tunnel (III: 347)
There are broad stone steps leading from the outer ward to the entrance of one of the collosal round towers (III: 347)
Harrenhal's bathhouse is a low-ceilinged room filled with great stone tubs large enough to hold six or seven after the fashion of the Free Cities (III: 416)
The Hall of a Hundred Hearths is huge, larger even than the throne room of the Red Keep. There are steps to two galleries above (III: 421)
The floor of the great hall is of smooth slate (III: 421)
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)
Harrenhal's eastern gate is smaller than its main gate (III: 501)
Six miles east of Harrenhal stands the lake road which runs southwards (III: 501)
Harren the Black had wished to do even his bear-baiting in lavish style, so the bear pit at Harrenhal is ten yards across and five yards deep, walled in stone, floored with sand, and encircled by six tiers of marble benches (III: 510)
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, which in turn is perhaps a week's ride north of King's Landing (IV: 400)
Through the main gates, the walls are so thick that no less than a dozen murder holes are passed before one reaches the yard on the other side (IV: 401)
Hunter's Hall (IV: 405)
Lady Shella Whent was wife to Lord Whent, who hosted the great tourney at Harrenhal. The fair maid was her daughter (SSM: 1)
Harrenhal is immensely strong, and a garrison of three hundred men should be able to hold it against a siege for half a year or more (SSM: 1)
Harrenhal is so large that a larger-than-normal garrison is needed to hold it against a determined siege (SSM: 1

Last revised August 01, 2009
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5.2.3.3. The Brackens of the Stone Hedge

The Brackens and the Blackwoods have been feuding for thousands of years, from the time of the Age of Heroes when they were rivals as kings over the riverlands at various points in time. Matters were not helped when the Brackens abandoned the old gods in favor of the Seven (I: 662. THK: 43. SSM: 1)
The feud between the Brackens and the Blackwoods was reinvigorated when Ser Otho Bracken, called the Brute of Bracken, killed Lord Quentyn Blackwood in tourney at King's Landing in about the year 205 (THK: 463)
The Bracken lands touch the Red Fork (III: 22)
In 211, Lord Bracken was dying a slow death, while his eldest son died of the plague during the Great Spring Sickness. This left Ser Otho, the Brute of Bracken, as heir, a situation which could mean war as the Blackwoods hated him (TSS: 121)
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)
Lord Otho Bracken, the Brute of Bracken, was not among those who attended Lord Butterwell's tourney in the reign of King Aerys I (TMK: 672)
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)

Last revised February 20, 2013
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5.2.3.4. The Blackwoods of Raventree Hall

The Blackwoods follow the old gods, and are one of the few southron houses to continue to do so (I: 661. SSM: 1)
The Brackens and the Blackwoods have been feuding for thousands of years, from the time of the Age of Heroes when they were rivals as kings over the riverlands at various points in time. Matters were not helped when the Brackens abandoned the old gods in favor of the Seven (I: 662. THK: 43. SSM: 1)
The feud between the Brackens and the Blackwoods was reinvigorated when Ser Otho Bracken, called the Brute of Bracken, killed Lord Quentyn Blackwood in tourney at King's Landing in about the year 205 (THK: 463)
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)
Blackwoods have had wives from House Osgrey in the past (TSS: 112)
In 211, Lord Bracken was on his deathbed while his son Ser Otho, the Brute of Bracken, stood as his heir. This was a situation that was considered intolerable for the Blackwoods and could lead to war (TSS: 121)
An army appeared outside Whitewalls, a host raised at Lord Bloodraven's command. Lord Blackwood was among its leaders (TMK: 731)

Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.2.3.5. The Mallisters of Seagard

Jason Mallister cut down three of Rhaegar Targaryens bannermen at the Trident (I: 247)
Seagard was built to defend the coast from ironborn reavers (II: 131)
The Booming Tower is named so because of its immense bronze bell, used to call the townsfolk and others into the safety of the castle when longships were sighted (II: 131)
The bell of the Booming Tower was rung only once in three hundred years, when Rodrik Greyjoy ventured to raid Seagard during his father's rebellion. Jason Mallister slew him beneath the walls and threw the ironmen back into the bay (II: 131)
When Prince Rhaegar was young, he rode brilliantly in a tourney at Storm's End, defeating many notables, including Lord Jason Mallister (III: 485)
The Mallisters have some half dozen longships and two war galleys to protect their shores from raiders (III: 525)
The Cape of Eagles is near Seagard (III: 525)
Ser Denys Mallister once unhorsed Lord Tarly (father to Lord Randyll Tarly) and Lord Alester Florent in a tournament. He was a squire at 12, a knight at 18, and a tourney champion at 22, and he has since gone on to command the Shadow Tower for some 33 years (III: 888, 889)

Last revised February 28, 2007
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5.2.3.6. The Darrys of Darry

The Darry lands and castle are modest, half a day’s ride south of the Trident (I: 128)
The Darrys fought for the Targaryens in the War of the Usurper (I: 128, 241)
There is a song of Lord Deremond (who may have been a Darry) at the Bloody Meadow (II: 476)
There is a river named Darry between Harrenhall and the Trident (III: 39)
Ser Willem Darry was the master-at-arms of the Red Keep at least from the time that Prince Rhaegar was a boy (III: 91)
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)
House Darry has ruled its lands since the Andals cast down the First Men in the lands watered by the Trident (IV: 445)
The keep of the Darry castle is called the Plowman's Keep (IV: 447)
Darry is a small castle as such things go, but the hunting is good along the river (IV: 447)
The Darrys were very loyal to the Targaryen kings, and kept tapestries of all the Targaryen kings from Aegon the Conqueror to Aerys the Second (IV: 448)
The Darry castle is large enough to hold at least a hundred men in its yards (IV: 455)
The sept of the Darry castle is off the inner ward. It is seven-sided but windowless, half-timbered with carved wooden doors and a tiled roof. The Seven loom above carved altars (IV: 455, 456)
The castle has a godswood (IV: 459)
At the time of Daemon Blackfyre's rebellion, Lord Darry was fiercely loyal to King Daeron the good (IV: 548)
The Darrys at one time controlled lands that included the old inn near the crossing of the Trident (IV: 548)
Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta and Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun together served as squires to Lord Darry (IV: 567)
Ser Jonothor Darry, brother to Ser Willem Darry, was the second member of the Kingsguard to die at the Trident (SSM: 1)

Last revised July 29, 2009
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5.3. Songs, Stories, and Legends

Harrenhal is said to be cursed because of the burning by the Targaryen dragons which led to the deaths of Harren the Black and his line. Every house that has held the castle since has met with misfortune (II: 88)
Ghosts are said to dwell in Harrenhal, and stories tell of men who were in their beds asleep are found the following morning all seared and burned mysteriously (II: 157)
Stories have it that Harren the Black mixed the blood of children into the mortar of Harrenhal (II: 307)
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)
There is a song of Lord Deremond (who may have been a Darry) at the Bloody Meadow (II: 476)
Harrenhal's mews, where falcons were raised, are said to have only ghostly falcons residing in them (II: 496)
Some fools say that eating frogs as the crannogmen do will cause teeth to turn green and moss to grow from armpits (III: 104)
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)
High Heart was sacred to the children of the forest, and their magic is said to linger, protecting anyone who sleeps there from harm (III: 249)
The smallfolk shun High Heart, saying it was haunted by ghosts of the children who had died there when the Andal king Erreg the Kingslayer had cut down the grove (III: 249)
It's said by some that the Lords of Riverrun sink into the soft mud of the rivers, in the watery halls where they hold eternal court, schools of fish their last attendants (III: 394)
Tristifer, the Fourth of his Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills, ruled from the Trident to the Neck thousands of years before Jenny of Oldstones and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the Andals. He was called the Hammer of Justice, and the singers say that he fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety. When he raised his castle, now a ruin known only as Oldstones, it was the strongest in Westeros (III: 520)
A story is told that Mad Danelle Lothston sent out giant black bats of Harrenhal out to collect bad children for her cooking pots. She bathed in blood and presided over feasts of human flesh (IV: 132, 403)
"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)

Last revised May 26, 2009
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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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The Citadel

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