Canon Claude

House: Claude Current Lord: Canon Claude Sigil: Four pine trees, black on a pale grey background. Words: We Shall Return Location: The Vale Lands: The forested region between the Mountains of the Moon and the Bay of Crabs, facing Gulltown on the far side of the inlet. Seat: Hardholt, formerly the castle now known as Heart's Home. House Weapons: An ancient shillelagh made of weirwood, known as Vymarr Fealty: House Royce of Runestone, as well as House Arryn of the Eyrie. Gods: Old gods Blood: First Men History: House Claude stretches back to the time of the First Men's first arrival to Westeros, or so it seems. The founder of this ancient house is unknown, but the earliest known member of the house was Vymarr Claude, a heroic warrior who began a dynasty of kings which ended with the Andal invasions of the Vale. In keeping with his faith in the old gods, Vymarr fashioned a mighty shillelagh (a special sort of club) from a large branch that he took from a weirwood tree. It was specially preserved, cured, and fire-hardened to become a weapon that would long survive any one man's life, and the end of the shillelagh was also hollowed out and filled with lead to make it a particularly lethal weapon. According to legend, King Vymarr used this weapon to crush the skull of King Jon Hunter with a single swing. It was due to this weapon that the Claudes were known as the Club Kings in the Vale. The shillelagh has since become known to House Claude as "Vymarr" in honour of this mighty king. Due to a seer's prophecy, no member of House Claude is permitted to bear the name "Vymarr" as it belongs only to this shillelagh. House Claude's time as minor kings came to an end with the invasion of the Andals. Driven back by the iron-clad knights, their ancestral castle was abandoned to the forces of Corwyn Corbray. They appealed to House Brightstone and House Shell for aid, but both houses preferred to attack Corbray by themselves, scorning House Claude's downfall. King Morfin Claude and his three eldest sons had died in battle with the Corbrays, but Vymarr was recovered by his youngest son, Quentyn. Rather than claim a worthless kingship, Quentyn led his remaining family and followers to House Royce of Runestone, the family of his deceased mother. The Royces took the Claudes in, permitting them to build the castle known as Hardholt across the bay from Gulltown. Quentyn vowed that they would one day reclaim their ancient home from the Corbrays, and Vymarr would be used to extinguish the Corbrays once and for all. When Robar II Royce declared his intent to drive the Andals into the sea, Eustace Claude was among the first to pledge his support. It was said that he led close to a thousand of House Claude's followers in the Battle of the Seven Stars, slaying many with his shillelagh before being taken captive by the victorious Andals. In mockery of House Claude's vow to avenge the loss of their home, Jaime Corbray personally executed Eustace with Lady Forlorn and stole his widow to be his bed companion. Lord Corbray also wished to burn the shillelagh Vymarr, but the club was rescued by one of Eustace's followers and brought back to Hardholt (according to legend, the former Lady Claude got her vengeance on Jaime Corbray by castrating him with a hidden dagger when the wine-sodden lord attempted to make use of her). Since their humbling at the Battle of the Seven Stars, House Claude has endured as bannermen to House Royce, as well as developing a trading business within Gulltown which has given them some modicum of wealth over the years. Whether it was their dabbling in mining for common metals or drawing wood from their forests (as well as maintaining these forests so they continue to flourish), the Claudes are seen as a low-status house for their direct use of common trades to maintain themselves. They are also alienated in the Vale for their continued worship of the old gods. While the Claudes focused a lot of energy towards wealth and natural resources, they never abandoned their war prowess, and frequently marched alongside House Royce. Several Claudes have distinguished themselves in battle over the years. The Claudes followed House Royce and House Arryn by swearing allegiance to House Targaryen when Visenya Targaryen landed her dragon on the Eyrie. Mychel Claude swung Vymarr in service to Lord Allard Royce when Jonos Arryn usurped his elder brother. Barlon Claude and all his sons died in service to Gunthor "Bronze Giant" Royce during the Vale's succession crisis during the early reign of Aegon III. Lanval Claude, better known as "the Black Club," abandoned his family to fight for Daemon Blackfyre. It was Lanval who targeted House Corbray for their loyalty to King Daeron II, slaying several members of this house in open battle before being slain by his own cousin, Lord Ellar Claude, who recovered Vymarr, though he was called a kinslayer for the rest of his days. In more recent years, Isembard Claude and other members of his family marched with Yohn Royce during Robert's Rebellion. Isembard made his name at the battle of Gulltown, dying later in combat during the Battle of the Bells, along with his brothers and sons. Isembard's young cousin and heir, Canon, took up Vymarr for his own, putting to rest the feud with House Corbray by saving Lyonel Corbray's life from an attack by Jonothor Darry. Canon was named Lord of Hardholt, and a grateful Lyonel Corbray later arranged a marriage between Canon and a Corbray cousin. Since then, Canon Claude has led his house through times of plenty, keeping faith with Yohn Royce. Titles: Lord of Hardholt, formerly Club King

Plus it means that Stannis has a low-ranking marriage which undercuts any attempt he might take to seize the throne from his brother's family. Though I doubt Robert ever truly suspected that Stannis would ever do something like that.

The Old King and Good Queen had quite a few children together, and they all got up to a number of interesting adventures while being unique individuals. So which of these kids caught your attention the most? For me, it was Alyssa Targaryen. It was oddly refreshing to read about a young happy couple who were completely open and unashamed about how epic their sex life was (this was after I just quietly forgot about how incestuous House Targaryen is and tried not to think about it while reading these books). But more than that, Alyssa was almost like an Arya Stark who got to live life as she wanted. She was clearly an adept fighter, given how badly she humiliated her brother in the training yard, and she was quick to stand up for her sisters, even if she didn't have a good relationship with them.

Even if Viserys never returned, Unwin Peake was never going to triumph. He isn't undone in one fell swoop. His downfall is carried out by a sequence of actions and the intervention of many people. First, his attempt to marry Myrielle to Aegon leads to a literal continent-wide protest from everyone else. Unwin acted selfishly, arrogantly, and in great haste following the tragic death of Jaehaera (even if he had nothing to do with her murder). If Aegon was truly isolated, none of those lords would have said a thing. Yes, I'm aware that most of those lords are selfish themselves, but the point still stands that they would never allow one egotistical lord take control of the royal family. And even without the other lords, there's also Rhaena and Baela Targaryen. Their arrival with Daenara Velaryon is one of the best moments of the book, as far as I'm concerned, and it's a clear sign that nothing Unwin could do would ever be enough to defeat the sisters. They were popular, headstrong, independent, and all despite having wildly different personalities. Unwin would never be able to rein them in.

It's pretty self-explanatory in the title, but I'll elaborate. Choose a badass line delivered by character that isn't known for being warlike or obviously heroic or confrontational. So anything by Stannis, Robert, Jon Snow, Tywin Lannister, and those sorts of people. And because I'm expecting this issue to come up, I don't think Tyrion Lannister should count after all he's been through.

Tough call, but I'm going with Theon Stark, the Hungry Wolf.

Did they really think they could mistreat and abuse Aegon III and never expect any kind of reprisals when he came of age? Gareth Long's idea of discipline was vulgar at best, horrific at worst, and it made him an enemy of Aegon III. What was he expecting when the boy king became 16? Would he forget all the hostility and anger towards his arms instructor? I get it, they were power-hungry in a backwards patriarchy, but they really seem so short-sighted in their pursuit of power. Aegon was going to become the king and then he would be free to order their deaths with a single command. Send them to the Wall, have them killed on some suicidal mission, even put them on trial for one reason or another (assuming they didn't conspire against him first), and since they didn't make any friends, nobody would have objected to that kind of revenge. Honestly, it makes sense that Peake and his cronies conspired to kill Aegon, given how terrified they must have been of his forthcoming vengeance for all the mistreatment, neglect, and abuse which he received at their hands.

Let's assume that Robb had been more assertive after the death of Ned Stark and his victories against the Lannisters at Riverrun. Say he decides to do the honourable thing and side with Stannis, even against Renly and Joffrey and whatnot. What do he and Stannis do differently?

Compelling points. But there's just as much of an argument that Tywin is Rodrigo Borgia. GRRM mixed elements from various people to create the characters of his books. No single figure is the sole inspiration. On a side note, Patrick McGoohan would have been an amazing Tywin if he'd been alive and the appropriate age.

Honestly, I think you pointing out that Velaryons still look Valyrian despite not practising incest actually enforces Floki's argument rather than diminishes it. Look at how much the Velaryon seed endures despite mingling with who knows how many different houses. Aurane Waters resembles Rhaegar to the point that Cersei openly dances with him and flirts with him. And he's not even a legitimate Velaryon. How could the Velaryons retain their Valyrian features after generations of mixing genes if their seed WASN'T strong? Not even the Baratheons or Tullys could compete with that.

Yes they were. They defeated him with trickery, deception, and archery rather than a straightforward battle. Cole offered single combat to settle things and nobody wanted to fight him because they knew he’d probably win. Sure, they talk about not giving him and honourable death, but it doesn’t honour them to kill him with arrows. Plus, the Rivermen had Northern allies there, so they knew their fighting worth. Now an even bigger army of unfriendly Northmen arrive on the scene who suddenly have King’s Landing under their power.

Honestly, I can believe that Cregan Stark could terrify young southron lords like the Tullys and Bloody Ben Blackwood. He was supposedly the greatest swordsman that Aemon the Dragonknight ever faced (and that says something, given how Cregan would have been an old man if he ever did cross swords with Aemon). As a young man with an army of wild northmen at his back (I believe his army was closer in size to 20,000 rather than 8,000, but that's just me), Cregan would have been in a very powerful and intimidating position.

Honestly, I think this was one of the most glaring problems when it came to the Dance. It makes no sense to me that the bloodiest day of the war killed 2,000 men, half of which were apparently Northmen.

Going back to the original question, I always thought it was strange too that none of the lords considered that Aegon would be a man full grown and might enjoy finally getting a taste of power. Steller was right, I just re-read that part of the book and it really seems like the only people who weren't being short-sighted were Thaddeus Rowan, Torrhen Manderly, and Tyland Lannister. There's no stories of any of the regents trying to have a one-on-one with the boy, no mention of Unwin Peake even bothering to ingratiate himself to the boy and deciding that Aegon's a pushover, nothing like that at all. Especially after he got Viserys back, you'd think there would be some kind of incentive to try and get on Aegon's good side before he came of age, because if you want to stay in King's Landing, you'll need the king's approval.

I agree, she probably knew nothing. It’s the Tower of Joy, not the Tower of Living-with-my-baby-daddy-in-isolation-while-trying-to-repress-memories-of-my-deceased-family-and-friends-who-are-all-dying-to-save-me-except-the-one-I’ll-emotionally-blackmail-to-ruin-his-reputation-for-my-sake.