The soft, fertile heart of Westeros, laced by the Trident and its tributaries and bounded by nothing at all — which is precisely why every army that has ever marched anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms has, sooner or later, marched through it.
Open on every side and defended by no mountain, sea, or desert, the riverlands have belonged in turn to petty river kings, the Storm Kings, ironborn reavers under Harwyn Hardhand, and finally House Tully, raised to rule the region by Aegon the Conqueror for the singular virtue of surrendering before he had to burn anything. The land's richness has always made it worth taking and, for exactly that reason, has rarely been left in peace long enough to enjoy.
In 101 AC the riverlands hosted the realm at Harrenhal for the Great Council that settled a disputed succession without a single sword drawn — a rare enough event that the maesters thought it worth the ink. It has hosted considerably less peaceful gatherings before and since.
In the timeline
SourcesTWOIAF · The RiverlandsACOK · CatelynASOS · Catelyn
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Where is The Riverlands?
The soft, fertile heart of Westeros, laced by the Trident and its tributaries and bounded by nothing at all — which is precisely why every army that has ever marched anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms has, sooner or later, marched through it.
Is The Riverlands from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.