House Baratheon

Stannis Baratheon

Lord of Dragonstone

Life: no fixed AC year given; the middle Baratheon brother
House: Baratheon

Last reported marching a host toward Winterfell in the depths of a hard winter; the outcome is not yet chronicled.

Stannis Baratheon has spent his life being the Baratheon brother nobody wanted at the feast: too rigid for Robert's taste, too joyless for Renly's, and too honest by half for a court that ran on flattery. He held Storm's End through a siege that starved his garrison to eating rats and boot leather rather than yield, and considers that unbending resolve his defining virtue — which, in fairness to him, it usually is. Passed over for Robert's small council in favor of louder men, Stannis has built his claim to the Iron Throne on the one argument he trusts absolutely: that he is owed it by law, and the law does not care whether a man is likeable. A maester notes, with the dry respect due a subject who makes his job easier by never once lying to the record.

The arc of Stannis Baratheon

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Stannis's claim draws him first to a catastrophic naval defeat before King's Landing and then to an alliance with a red priestess whose fires and prophecies he has staked his cause upon, at increasingly steep cost to those loyal to him. The published books leave him and his starving army stalled before a besieged northern castle in the grip of a killing winter storm, the battle's outcome unresolved on the page.

Where the books leave Stannis Baratheon: alive as of A Dance with Dragons, his army stranded and starving before Winterfell in a killing snowstorm, the battle's outcome unrecorded in the published books

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

In the timeline

Theories about Stannis Baratheon

SourcesACOK · DavosASOS · DavosADWD · The WatcherTWOIAF · House Baratheon

Is Stannis Baratheon alive?

As of A Dance with Dragons, yes — though the chronicle leaves the battle he is fighting unresolved, as the published books do.

Who is Stannis Baratheon?

Robert Baratheon's younger brother, Lord of Dragonstone, and a claimant to the Iron Throne who has built his cause on law and stubbornness rather than charm.