From the Wall to the White Sword Tower, the realm leans on its sworn orders and its great offices. Here are the men who guard kings, hold the ice, keep the coin, and sell their swords — and where each is bound by oath, and where only by gold.
The sworn brotherhood that holds the Wall against whatever waits in the haunted lands beyond it. Its men take no wife, hold no lands, and wear black until they die. Eight thousand years have thinned their ranks from a proud order to a threadbare guard of thieves, poachers, and the odd exiled lord — yet the vow does not change.
In the chronicle
Seven of the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms, sworn to shield the king with their own bodies and keep his secrets to the grave. They wear cloaks and enameled scale of white, forsake their lands and their houses, and serve until death takes them or their king does. The deeds of every brother, fair and foul, are set down in the White Book.
In the chronicle
No king rules alone. Since Aegon's day the realm has been governed from a single table, where a handful of great officers each hold one thread of kingship. A wise king listens to all seven and heeds a few; a weak one is ruled by whichever whispers loudest.
SourcesA Game of Thrones · A Clash of Kings · A Storm of Swords · Fire & Blood
The ironborn keep an older custom than the mainland's crowns. When the Seastone Chair falls empty and no heir sits unchallenged, the captains and kings of the Iron Islands may call a kingsmoot — a gathering on the shore where any man who commands his own longship may stand, boast, and offer gifts, and where the assembled captains choose their king by acclamation.
SourcesA Feast for Crows
Older than the Citadel and stranger, the Alchemists' Guild of pyromancers were once counted sorcerers, and are still styled 'wisdoms' by their own conceit. Their art is the making of wildfire — the substance men call the substance, a green fire that clings, burns underwater, and grows hotter the older it is.
SourcesA Clash of Kings · A Storm of Swords
Where lords keep sworn swords, the Free Cities and the ambitious keep bought ones. The sellsword companies are the standing armies of the Disputed Lands — mercenaries who fight for coin and loot, break contracts when a better one is offered, and are trusted by no one, least of all one another.
The largest and most storied free company, founded across the narrow sea by Aegor 'Bittersteel' Rivers and the exiles of the losing Blackfyre cause. Alone among sellswords they are famed for never breaking a contract — 'our word is good as gold' — and they carry the gilded skulls of their honored dead to war.
An ancient company, old enough that men have forgotten who its first sons were. It has changed sides more than once, as the price demanded.
Led by a Dornishman who styles himself the Tattered Prince, a company that recruits the broken and the runaway from a hundred lands.
A company of the Disputed Lands, ruled by a shifting council of captains rather than one lord.
The Bloody Mummers — the most despised of all the free companies, a rabble of torturers and turncloaks whose loyalty lasts exactly as long as their pay.
The Golden Company keeps its own long tale — of Bittersteel's oath, the four rebellions, and the elephants that march with it.
SourcesA Storm of Swords · A Dance with Dragons
Two sworn brotherhoods stand above the rest — the Night's Watch, which holds the Wall, and the Kingsguard, which shields the king. Around the Iron Throne sits the small council of great officers who govern day to day. The ironborn keep their own custom of the kingsmoot, the pyromancers of the Alchemists' Guild make wildfire, and across the narrow sea the free companies sell their swords to the highest bidder.
The king's inner council is led by the Hand of the King, who rules in the king's name. Beside him sit the Grand Maester, the master of coin, the master of laws, the master of ships, the master of whisperers (the spymaster), and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Kings add or drop seats as they please, but these are the offices the realm turns on.
A kingsmoot is the ancient ironborn custom of choosing a king by acclamation. When the Seastone Chair falls empty with no undisputed heir, the captains gather on the shore, and any man who commands his own longship may stand and make his claim. A driftwood crown is set on the head the captains raise up together. The custom is said to date to the Grey King, and had lain unused for thousands of years.
The Golden Company is the largest and most famous free company across the narrow sea, founded by the exiled Blackfyre partisan Aegor 'Bittersteel' Rivers. Alone among sellswords, it is renowned for never breaking a contract — 'our word is good as gold' — and it carries the gilded bones of its honored dead to war.