23) YOREN (Previous Ranking: Unranked)
Category: Night’s Watch Officer/Recruiter
As a “Wandering Crow,” Yoren is a talent scout for the Night’s Watch, searching the Seven Kingdoms for suitable candidates — usually criminals, beggars and desperadoes — to join the Black Brothers. He was once a man on the run himself, telling Arya Stark of the day he killed Willem, the man who murdered his brother: “I buried an axe so deep into Willem’s skull they had to bury him with it. Willem’s horse got me to the Wall and I’ve been wearing black ever since” (“What is Dead May Never Die” S2/Ep3).
Yoren is also handy with the steel. His last battle against an overwhelming force of Lannister soldiers is mightily impressive — he manages to cut down a crossbowman who shoots him, plus slaughter three swordsmen as he is attacked from all sides. The mounted Ser Armory Lorch easily dispatches the doomed Yoren once he’s wounded. If to die in battle is glorious, then Yoren bites the dust magnificently, and certainly deserves a place on this list.