““Above the Rest” — a boast, this chronicle notes, that a house sworn beneath the Tullys of Riverrun has never quite managed to make literal, whatever its own bloodline's seniority.”
The seat, the words, the line, and the tale of House Mallister — drawn from the novels and the Citadel's fuller histories, with the television series set aside wherever it parts from the books.
Seat
Seagard
Region
The Riverlands
Founder
Unnamed. An Andal house that carved holdings from the ironborn along the Cape of Eagles and raised Seagard to guard what it had taken, generations before the river lords of House Tully rose to lord paramountcy over the Trident.
The Mallisters will tell any traveler who lingers long enough that their line is older and prouder than the Tullys' own — true enough, so far as the Citadel can verify, though seniority of blood has bought Seagard a silver eagle and a proud motto rather than the paramountcy that seniority, in a fairer world, might have earned it.
I
A Fortress Against the Iron Islands
Seagard was raised, long before Aegon's dragons made lordship on the Trident a matter of one family's grant, to hold the Cape of Eagles against the ironborn reavers who had made the coast their hunting ground. The Mallisters who built it, and the river kings who briefly wore Trident crowns of their own before House Tully's rise ended such ambitions for every house on the river alike, were never especially awed by the Tullys' later paramountcy — a seniority of blood the family has nursed, quietly and at length, ever since it was made to answer to Riverrun rather than to a crown of its own.
II
The Bell That Had Not Rung in Three Hundred Years
When Balon Greyjoy's rebellion sent ironborn longships against the western shores of the riverlands, Rodrik Greyjoy — Balon's own eldest son and heir — led the storming of Seagard in person, confident enough in the attempt that the castle's ancient warning bell, silent for three centuries, was rung for the first time in living memory to summon its defenders. Jason Mallister met the assault at his own gates and killed Rodrik Greyjoy there, a stroke that broke the attack on Seagard outright and, combined with his brother Maron's death soon after, broke a good deal of the ironborn rebellion's momentum with it. Few lords of any house in the Seven Kingdoms can claim to have personally ended a king's heir's ambitions on their own doorstep; House Mallister, characteristically, does not let the point go unmentioned.
In the chronicle
The present tale
This chapter carries the house's fortunes into the novels' events — veiled until you choose to read on.
§
A Father's Ransom, a Cousin's Near Command
Jason Mallister rode to Robb Stark's cause as a loyal bannerman of Riverrun throughout the War of the Five Kings, and paid for that loyalty when his son Patrek, taken captive in the slaughter at the Twins, became a hostage Black Walder Frey used to pry Seagard's gates open — Lord Jason surrendering the castle his ancestors built against the ironborn rather than see his son hanged for it. Whether the surrender bought Patrek's life outright or merely delayed its ending is a question this chronicle's sources do not answer with confidence.
Far to the north, a cousin of the main line has come nearer to Mallister glory of a different sort: Denys Mallister, commander of the Shadow Tower since a year this chronicle can date with unusual precision — 267 AC — stood twice before as a candidate for Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and yielded both times to older claims. In the election that followed Jeor Mormont's death, Denys came closer than ever before, carrying the Shadow Tower's full garrison and, in the race's later rounds, more votes than all but one man standing against him — before losing, in the end, to a steward's bastard son half his age.
In the chronicle
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.
The people of House Mallister
The lords, ladies, and branches of Mallister the books name — the notable, the infamous, and the merely unlucky.
Jason Mallister
Lord of Seagard, slew Rodrik Greyjoy in Greyjoy's Rebellion, later a bannerman to Robb Stark
fl. 289–300 AC
Patrek Mallister
Jason's son, caught up in the war on the Trident
fl. 299 AC, lost track of amid the war's fighting
Denys Mallister
commander of the Shadow Tower, twice runner-up for Lord Commander of the Night's Watch
fl. 267–300 AC
What is House Mallister known for?
The Mallisters will tell any traveler who lingers long enough that their line is older and prouder than the Tullys' own — true enough, so far as the Citadel can verify, though seniority of blood has bought Seagard a silver eagle and a proud motto rather than the paramountcy that seniority, in a fairer world, might have earned it.
Where is the seat of House Mallister?
House Mallister holds Seagard, in The Riverlands. The chronicle traces the house from its founding down to its part in the present tale, marking legend as legend wherever the songs run ahead of the record.
Is House Mallister in the books or only the show?
Book canon. This history follows George R. R. Martin's novels first, then the histories — Fire & Blood and The World of Ice & Fire — and does not follow the television series where it diverges.