The Riverlands: heartland of Westeros

Before the reign of Aegon the Conqueror, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were seven separate kingdoms, run separately and frequently in conflict with each other. Going clockwise from south to north they were Dorne, the Reach, the Westerlands, the Iron Islands, the Riverlands, the North, the Vale, and the Stormlands. In the first season of Game of Thrones, we heard an incomplete overview of the geography of Westeros through Maester Luwin teaching Bran: the North is the domain of the Starks, the Lannisters rule the Westerlands, and the Riverlands are ruled by Lady Catelyn’s family, the Tullys.

The Targaryen conquest forced the seven kingdoms to become one country under one monarchy, and the new ruling family created another province for itself: the region now known as the Crownlands was carved out of the Riverlands, which, up to that point, had the Vale to the east, the Stormlands to the southeast, the Reach to the southwest, the Westerlands to the west, and the North to the north. The Riverlands also had a poorly defended shoreline that faced the Iron Islands.

The Riverlands’ position as the central province of Westeros creates an interesting situation in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. It’s located in the heart of the realm, and it suffers during the War of the Five Kings.

Some of the most politically and emotionally far-reaching events of the series have taken place in the Riverlands. Take, for example, the argument between Sansa, Arya, and Joffrey that leads to Arya chasing Nymeria away andthe slaughter of Lady. The same situation creates a conflict between the Stark girls that they don’t resolve before they’re separated by their father’s execution. This is also where we see Arya develop a grudge against the Hound for killing her friend Mycah.

At the same inn, we see Catelyn Stark and her companions encounter Tyrion Lannister, on his way home from the Wall. She calls on her father’s bannermen to arrest Tyrion for the murder attempt on Bran. This turn of events leads to Tywin Lannister declaring war on the Tullys, which turns the Riverlands into a warzone for over a year while the Starks and Lannisters and their allies fight for dominance.

The Lannisters are camped in the Riverlands in the earlier months of their war against the Starks and Tullys, and this is where Tyrion meets Shae. On this same occasion, he tells Shae and Bronn about his marriage to Tysha. Following a battle against Robb Stark’s host, Tywin orders Tyrion to travel to King’s Landing and take the role of acting Hand of the King. He does so, but he also takes Shae with him.

Meanwhile, the Starks visit the Twins, also located in the Riverlands, where Catelyn negotiates the terms of an alliance with “the late” Walder Frey.

In Season 2, the Riverlands are the place where Arya bonds with her new friends Hot Pie and Gendry. There, Yoren tells her about how he killed a young man for revenge and joined the Night’s Watch. Ever since then, Arya’s had a list of names she recites every night before she goes to sleep, and the only way she shortens the list is by killing people. In this same leg of the journey, Yoren is killed in the battle that ensues when Ser Amory Lorch demands custody of Gendry. Arya helps Jaqen H’Ghar free himself, Polliver takes Needle away from her, and he kills her friend Lommy when he’s too wounded to walk to Harrenhal.

One of the major locations of the Riverlands is the immense, ruined castle of Harrenhal, where Arya and her friends are brought as prisoners. Tywin Lannister shows up at the castle and puts the prisoners to work before the Mountain, one of his knights, can torture any more of them. He doesn’t recognize Arya, but notices she’s a girl and makes her his cupbearer. This is how Arya has her discussions with Tywin, and this is the context in which Jaqen offers to repay Arya’s favor by killing three people.

After Arya and the boys escape Harrenhal with Jaqen’s help, Jaqen offers to take Arya with him to Braavos for assassin training, and with Arya’s refusal, he gives her the iron coin and the phrase “Valar Morghulis.”

So far, a theme common to all these journeys is that most of the characters are not native to the Riverlands. Arya is from the North, Tywin and his knights are from the Westerlands, Hot Pie and Gendry are from the Crownlands (King’s Landing), and Jaqen H’Ghar is from Braavos. This is a vital feature of the Riverlands: everyone else in the realm has to travel through it, and everyone has business to conduct there, but when that business is finished, the rest of the realm does not stay long enough to clean up the mess.

In the third season, Robb Stark and his bannermen show up at Harrenhal after the Mountain slaughtered the prisoners and left. At this stage, Rickard Karstark is still alive and angry at Catelyn for freeing Jaime Lannister, but Roose Bolton is also there, assuring King Robb he has his best men looking for Jaime. In the same scene, Robb finds the chainless maester Qyburn still alive in a pile of dead bodies.

Robb and Catelyn receive news of Hoster Tully’s death, and of Winterfell being destroyed by the Ironborn. On the road to Riverrun, we see Catelyn’s conversation with Talisa about her guilt over her treatment of Jon Snow. At Riverrun, we’re introduced to Brynden “the Blackfish” Tully and Edmure Tully, Cateyln’s uncle and brother. Meanwhile, Talisa looks after the young hostages Martyn and Willem Lannister.

Elsewhere in the Riverlands, Arya and her friends Gendry and Hot Pie encounter the Brotherhood Without Banners, who shortly thereafter bring the Hound into the mix. Hot Pie stays at the inn as a cook, while Arya travels on to witness a trial by combat between the Hound and Beric Dondarrion. The Hound kills Beric, which only deepens Arya’s grudge against him. To our amazement, Thoros of Myr brings Beric back to life, and it isn’t the first time. Much to Arya’s rage, the Hound is allowed to go on his way. Gendry decides to stay with the Brotherhood as a smith.

At the same time, Jaime Lannister is traveling through the Riverlands in the custody of Brienne of Tarth. It’s in this region that he grabs hold of a sword and picks a fight with her, and at the end of their duel, Lord Bolton’s faithful soldier Locke shows up and takes them captive. Tied up on a horse together, Jaime and Brienne argue about their fight, and he warns her that she is certain to be raped by the Bolton soldiers. At camp, Jaime surprises Brienne by convincing Locke to leave her unharmed. In that same conversation, he tries to convince Locke to fight for the lion rather than the wolf, and that discussion doesn’t go quite the way Jaime had in mind.

On the road to Harrenhal, Locke cuts off Jaime’s sword hand.

Later on the same journey, Jaime falls off his horse and tries to fight the Bolton soldiers. Following that embarrassing scuffle, Jaime is ready to die, and Brienne convinces him to stay alive.

At Riverrun, Rickard Karstark ambushes and kills Willem and Martyn Lannister. Consequently, Robb decides to execute him. His mother, uncle, and new wife all advise him to keep Karstark as a hostage, but he disagrees, and off comes Karstark’s head. The rest of Karstark’s troops pack up and go home, which leaves Robb in a bad position for battle.

Locke and his soldiers arrive at Harrenhal with Jaime and Brienne, whom they deliver to Lord Bolton, who is not amused to learn of Jaime’s maiming. He sends Jaime to Qyburn for medical treatment, and once the stump is neatly sewn up, Jaime meets Brienne in the bathhouse, where he joins her in a giant tub and shares his deepest secrets.

Elsewhere in the Riverlands, Melisandre shows up with some Baratheon soldiers and meets with the Brotherhood. In meeting with Thoros of Myr, she’s shocked to learn of his having resurrected Beric six times. She buys custody of Gendry from the Brotherhood, which triggers another fit of anger from Arya. Melisandre confronts the little she-wolf and reads her future in her eyes.

Riverrun is the site of another meeting between the Starks/Tullys and Freys, where they renegotiate the terms of their alliance. That is the meeting in which Edmure agrees to marry Roslin Frey for the sake of the war. On the road to the Twins for the wedding, Talisa tells Robb she’s pregnant.

Roose Bolton meets for dinner with Jaime and Brienne at Harrenhal, where he announces that Jaime will be escorted back to the Red Keep while Brienne stays as a prisoner at Harrenhal. Jaime disagrees with these terms, but Bolton is uninterested in making any more concessions. Later, Jaime visits Brienne in her cell and promises to return the Stark girls to their mother. On the way out with his escort, he makes his farewell to Roose Bolton, who’s leaving to see Edmure’s wedding at the Twins, and asks him to tell Robb that the Lannisters send their regards.

Having witnessed their selling Gendry to Melisandre, Arya is angrier than ever at Beric and Thoros. As she runs away from the Brotherhood, the Hound catches her and makes her his new traveling companion.

On the road away from Harrenhal, Qyburn is still acting as physician to Jaime and reveals that Locke would not accept the ransom offer from Brienne’s father. With that news, Jaime uses threats and bribes to convince the escort’s captain, Steelshanks, to turn the group back to Harrenhal, where they find Brienne fighting in the bear pit armed with nothing but a wooden sword. That is where Jaime, armed with even less, saves her from the bear and leaves Harrenhal with Brienne in his company.

Now traveling alone with the Hound, Arya makes a half-hearted attempt to kill him one morning, just before he loads her onto his horse and announces his plans to get her to the Twins in time for her uncle’s wedding.

Following the wedding of Edmure Tully to the sweet, beautiful young Roslin Frey, Roose Bolton reveals to Catelyn that he is newly married to one of Walder Frey’s granddaughters, who came with a hefty dowry. Just as everyone is beginning to relax, the band plays “the Rains of Castamere,” Catelyn discovers Roose is wearing chainmail under his coat, and a massacre breaks out. Walder Frey’s sons stab Talisa in the belly, Roose Bolton stabs Robb Stark through the heart, Catelyn slashes Lady Frey’s throat, and Black Walder does the same to Catelyn.

Thus, the marriage of Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey becomes the Red Wedding.

The Hound arrives at the Twins with Arya just in time to see Robb’s body bearing his direwolf’s head. After knocking Arya unconscious, he grabs a Frey banner and gets them away from the castle before they can get in any more trouble.

Over breakfast the next morning, Roose Bolton discuss the fallout of the Red Wedding with Walder Frey. With Tywin Lannister’s backing, Roose Bolton is the Warden of the North and Frey is the Lord of Riverrun. They can’t find Ser Brynden the Blackfish since he excused himself to take a piss. Edmure has been the Freys’ prisoner since his bedding.

So went another season where the Riverlands served as a place for the characters to meet, bond, fight, and mak big decisions. The Tullys and Freys are Riverlands families, but the Boltons and Karstarks are from the North. Jaime, like all the Lannisters, is from the Westerlands, while Brienne is from the Stormlands. Most of the Brotherhood Without Banners may be Riverlands men, but Beric is from the Stormlands and Thoros is from Myr, while Melisandre is from Asshai and working with Baratheon soldiers from the Stormlands. The Hound is from the Westerlands. Both Roose Bolton and Walder Frey turned against the Starks only after making an alliance with Tywin Lannister, who, again, is the high lord of the Westerlands.

According to The World of Ice and Fire, interference in the region’s affairs by the ruling families of other provinces is nothing new to the Riverlands, but what makes the Riverlands politically unique in Westeros is that the region’s own noble families are so often complicit in those foreign invasions.

According to Maester Yandel in The World of Ice and Fire:

"Ironmen from the isles raided their coasts to the west, whilst pirates from the Stepstones and Three Sisters did the same to the east. Westermen rode down from the hills across the Red Fork to pillage and conquer, and the wild hill tribes emerged from the Mountains of the Moon to burn, plunder, and carry off women. From the southwest, the lords of the Reach sent iron columns of knights across the Blackwater whenever it pleased them; to the southeast lay the domains of the Storm Kings, ever eager for gold and glory.In all the long history of the Trident, under hundreds of rulers, there was hardly ever a time when the riverfolk were not at war with at least one of their neighbors. Sometimes they were forced to fight upon two or even three fronts at once.Worse, few of the river kings ever enjoyed the full support of his own lords bannermen. Memories of ancient wrongs and bygone betrayals were not oft put aside by the lords of the Trident, whose enmities ran as deep as the rivers that watered their lands. Time and time again, one or more of these riverlords would join with some invader against their own king; indeed, in some cases, it was these very lords who brought the outsiders into the riverlands, offering them lands or gold or daughters for their help against familiar foes."

The in-fighting amongst the Riverlands nobility (especially between the Brackens of Stone Hedge and the Blackwoods of Raventree) opened the door for King Arlan Durrandon of the Stormlands to take over the region. Thus, the Riverlands were ruled from Storm’s End for three centuries. The end of Stormlander rule of the Riverlands came with the invasion of Harwyn “Hardhand” Hoare from the Iron Islands.

The Hoares ruled the Riverlands for the next three generations, during which they are said to have encouraged feuding between their bannermen to keep them weak. In the Riverlands, such a divide-and-conquer strategy was not difficult, but during the reign of Harren the Black, the rivalry between the Brackens and Blackwoods interfered with the construction of Harrenhal, so King Harren punished both houses. This punishment left the Tullys of Riverrun as the most powerful of the noble Riverlands houses at the time of Aegon’s Conquest. When Aegon and his sisters came in with their dragons, the riverlords welcomed their new king as a remedy to the decades of tyranny by the Ironborn, and among the first to bend the knee was Lord Edmyn Tully, whom King Aegon named high lord of the Riverlands following the death of Harren the Black.

The Tullys did not come to power through wise leadership or military strength; they never attained the position of River Kings in the centuries leading up to Aegon’s Conquest. They achieved their position because, though far from blameless in the region’s conflicts, they were the most patient, level-headed, and diplomatic of the Trident’s noble families, and they knew when to bend the knee. The Tully lords fought hard and did well under the Targaryen dynasty, and Lord Hoster Tully put his House in a strong position by marrying his daughters to the Starks and Arryns during the rebellion that put Robert Baratheon on the throne.

However, at the time of Hoster Tully’s death, the Baratheon regime was in a vulnerable position and the Tullys were fighting alongside the Starks in a new war against the Lannisters.

There is a theme in the political history of the Riverlands: the heartland of Westeros never achieved the stability that comes with unified, organized leadership under a noble House. The region was vulnerable to invasion by foreigners, such as the Stormlanders and the Ironborn, mostly because of the behavior of its own nobles.

That brings us to Walder Frey, who neglected to take a side in the Battle of the Trident until after it was won, who allied with the Starks until they no longer the winning side, and who cooperated with the Boltons of the North and the Lannisters of the Westerlands to restore the status quo of the Iron Throne.

The Red Wedding was the latest chapter among many in the history of the Riverlands, in which one riverlord attacks another with the support of other lords from other provinces, without regard to the damage such power plays do to their bannermen and smallfolk. The Boltons and Lannisters were happy to use the Twins as the site of the massacre that ended the North’s secession from the Seven Kingdoms and placed Roose Bolton in the position Ned Stark once occupied, and now that the War of Five Kings is over, they can go back to their seats of power and leave the Freys to clean up the mess.

The Riverlands’ nobility are the region’s own worst enemy, so the common folk are vulnerable to violence and hunger, and receptive to offers of help from anyone who seems to have their welfare in mind. In the third season, the Brotherhood Without Banners seem interested in looking after the welfare of the Riverlands. In the fourth season, the Brotherhood are nowhere to be seen. At this stage of the series, activity in the Riverlands mostly consists of the adventures of Arya and the Hound.

First, they stop at an inn, where they fight with some Lannister soldiers and win. Arya gets Needle back from Polliver and steals herself a pony. The Hound is planning to ransom her to her aunt in the Vale. Later, they stay the night with a kindly farmer and his daughter. The Hound accepts the farmer’s offer of a job working on the farm, but the next morning he beats up the farmer and steals his silver. As they travel, they talk about Arya’s kill list, which includes the Hound and his brother. Later, he asks for a demonstration of her swordplay. He mocks her water-dancing, insults Syrio Forel, and knocks her to the ground when her sword fails to penetrate his armor.

After giving a quick death to a wounded man, they encounter Rorge and Biter when Biter jumps on the Hound and bites a chunk from his neck. The Hound promptly breaks Biter’s neck, Rorge tells them about Joffrey’s death and the bounty on the Hound, and Arya kills Rorge with a stab to the heart.

Later, the Hound is struggling with the bite wound but won’t let Arya cauterize it. He tells her about how his brother burned his face. She uses boiling wine to clean the wound, and sews it shut.

Returning to the Riverlands is Brienne, this time with her new squire Podrick Payne, who comes from the Westerlands and whose family is sworn to the Lannisters. They stop at the inn for a night, where they meet Hot Pie and ask him about Sansa Stark. He brings the conversation to an awkward end, but soon comes outside and tells them about Arya being alive.

That encounter sets the stage for Brienne and Podrick to come face to face with Arya and the Hound in the Vale following Lysa Arryn’s death. The fight over custody of Arya does not take place in the Riverlands, but it is possible because they stopped at that inn, which was the site of other important encounters in Arya’s travels, and they played nicely with Hot Pie, who made friends with Arya as they traveled through the Riverlands.

In the fifth season, Brienne is still recovering from her fight with the Hound as she takes herself and Podrick back through the Riverlands and happens to stay at the same inn at the same time as Littlefinger and Sansa. She sends Podrick outside and introduces herself to Sansa, a Northerner, and offers her services. Littlefinger, a native of the Vale, will not allow that, and Brienne refuses to stay and drink with them. The encounter ends with Brienne killing Littlefinger’s knights in self-defense as they pursue her and Podrick out of the inn. Podrick thinks that’s a good time to call the protection assignment off, but Brienne is having none of that: Sansa isn’t safe with Littlefinger.

That’s the last we see of the Riverlands for the fifth season, and we haven’t seen the Brotherhood Without Banners since Season 3. The Freys have kept themselves out of sight, and there’s been no sign of Edmure Tully or his uncle Ser Brynden. Everyone else involved in the Riverlands story has spread themselves out elsewhere; the Hound is presumed dead after his fight with Brienne, while Arya gave up the idea of finding her family and instead sailed for Braavos. Tywin Lannister was killed by his son Tyrion at the end of Season 4, and Jaime soon headed for an ill-fated adventure in Dorne. Brienne and Podrick pursued Sansa to Winterfell, and they remain in that area. There has been no sign of Arya’s direwolf Nymeria since she chased her into the woods back in the first season.

There’s a great deal of Riverlands content in A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons that did not make an appearance in Season 5, and much of that omission (such as Brienne and Podrick’s misadventures in the region) is because the show pre-empted those storylines in favor of other, more focused developments. At the same time, Arya’s storyline on the show has not caught up with the books, and her chapters in the books include some dreams involving a wolf pack, which suggest she’s warging into Nymeria from across the Narrow Sea.

There’s also Jaime, who had a much more focused presence in the Riverlands in the fourth and fifth books but did something completely different in the fifth season. Even before we saw the floods of filming leaks for Season 6, the case could be made that Jaime’s trip to Dorne was a postponement of his return to the Riverlands, not a replacement.

First, there is the fact that we’re overdue for a follow-up on the Freys, Tullys, and the Brotherhood Without Banners. Second, the Lannister family is about to become even more volatile following Myrcella’s death, and having Jaime take an army to the Riverlands would serve the dual purposes of getting him away from Cersei and putting a non-Riverlander in a position to mediate a return to the Freys and Tullys. Also, Jaime and Brienne haven’t seen each other since she left with Podrick in mid-Season 4, and for some reason the show made sure we saw how Jaime felt about sailing past the island of Tarth. The Riverlands would be a good area for them to reconnect. Finally, Jaime still owes Bronn a noble bride with a nice castle, and they need to do some traveling to find the right girl.

So far, we’ve heard about the Lannisters setting up camp at Riverrun along with the Freys, Jaime traveling with Bronn, Edmure Tully and Ser Brynden the Blackfish turning up, Walder Frey reappearing, and Brienne showing up with Podrick. We’ve seen casting notices for a group that sounds very much like a more violent iteration of the Brotherhood Without Banners, for someone who sounds like a combination of two interesting Riverlands characters in A Feast for Crows, and we have some slight hints that Sandor Clegane, miraculously alive, could make an appearance. We’ve even heard rumors about packs of wolves wandering the area, which may mean Nymeria could come back. With the possible exception of Arya (and we do have a tentative rumor of her return), we have all the makings of a Riverlands Reunion in Season 6.

Something to keep in mind is that whatever we see happening in the Riverlands in Season 6, it will be taking place at a later stage in the story, relative to certain events in King’s Landing and the North, than in the books. Therefore, while we appear to be getting adaptations of Jaime’s and Brienne’s chapters in A Feast for Crows, those events will be happening in a different context. Some divergences from the source material have already happened, and more divergences are inevitable.

Thus far, the Riverlands have been the ill-used crucible of Westerosi politics, a place where alliances are made and broken, wars are fought between different regions of the realm, unlikely friendships are forged, vital information is shared, supernatural powers are revealed, loved ones are lost, and interference by nobles from other regions is as inevitable as the flow of the Trident. The region is not as wealthy or well-organized as the Reach or the Westerlands, nor as remote as the North or the Vale. Its martial culture is neither as aggressive as the Iron Islands nor as disciplined as the Stormlands. The Riverlands are the first to suffer and the last to recover from the actions of players in the game of thrones, including their own nobility. As winter descends on the Seven Kingdoms, the situation in the Riverlands becomes more desperate, and the people can no longer depend on the Tullys to maintain balance. This may be the time in which the defenseless heartland of Westeros unexpectedly becomes as inhospitable to the agents of King’s Landing, the North, and elsewhere as it is dangerous to its common people. People from different regions will still come together and forge new alliances here, but this time they’ll do so not for power, but for survival.