Carrying Robert Baratheon's blood and being one of the few bastards Robert ever acknowledged
A boy conceived on another man's wedding night, whose blood proved more valuable to his uncle's court than anything else about him — and very nearly cost him everything.
Born of a Wedding Night's Mischief
Edric Storm was born in 287 AC, the son of Robert Baratheon and Delena Florent, conceived — to Stannis's lasting humiliation — on the very night of Stannis and Selyse's own wedding, when a drunken Robert bedded Delena in a chamber down the hall from his brother's marriage bed. Robert acknowledged remarkably few of his bastards, but he acknowledged this one, and Edric was raised partly under Stannis's grudging care at Storm's End despite the insult his conception represented.
He grew up bearing his father's stamp plainly: black hair, deep blue eyes, and the sturdy Baratheon build — a resemblance that would nearly cost him his life once his uncle's court turned to blood magic to fight a war on three fronts at once.
King's Blood, Twice Spent
When Stannis and Melisandre sought a weapon against three rival kings simultaneously, Edric was bled by leeches, his blood burned over the names of Joffrey Baratheon, Robb Stark, and Balon Greyjoy — a working whose results, whatever the text ultimately makes of them, unsettled everyone who watched it performed. Melisandre later pressed Stannis for a far greater sacrifice still, arguing that a king's blood burned whole, rather than merely leeched, might wake dragons from stone.
Ser Davos Seaworth, unwilling to let a boy burn for a prophecy he did not believe, arranged with the pirate Salladhor Saan to spirit Edric off Dragonstone and across the narrow sea to the Free Cities before Melisandre or Stannis could act on it — a mercy that cost Davos his standing and very nearly his neck.
Appearances
In the novels
A Storm of Swords
Key events
287 ACBorn to Delena Florent, conceived on the night of Stannis Baratheon and Selyse Florent's wedding.
circa 290s ACRaised partly under Stannis's grudging care at Storm's End despite the insult of his conception.
299 ACBled by leeches at Melisandre's direction; his blood is burned in a curse against three rival kings.
299 ACThreatened with a far greater sacrifice once Melisandre argues that a king's blood burned whole might wake dragons from stone.
299 ACSmuggled off Dragonstone by Ser Davos Seaworth and Salladhor Saan ahead of the planned sacrifice.
Reading the character
Edric Storm exists in the text almost entirely as a question about what a person's blood is worth to people who never ask the person himself. Being valued chiefly for his parentage rather than for anything about him as a person reduces him to currency in other people's ambitions and beliefs, which makes any quiet intervention on his behalf, on the rare occasion someone offers it, one of the more genuinely humane acts available to the people around him — precisely because it treats Edric as a boy rather than a resource.
His brief page time also serves as an early, blunt illustration of just how far his uncle's court is willing to go in the name of faith and prophecy — a preview delivered through a child who never has a say in the matter.
The arc of Edric Storm
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
Within the year of the ritual, all three kings named in it — Joffrey Baratheon, Robb Stark, and Balon Greyjoy — were dead by other hands entirely, a coincidence the text is careful never to fully explain. Whether the leech ritual actually caused their deaths, or merely coincided with three plots already in motion, is left for the reader to judge — the text never states it plainly either way.
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.
Legacy
Edric Storm survived the war by being smuggled out of it, making him one of the very few of Robert's bastards whose blood was spent for someone else's magic without spending Edric himself.
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Who is Edric Storm?
A boy conceived on another man's wedding night, whose blood proved more valuable to his uncle's court than anything else about him — and very nearly cost him everything.
Is Edric Storm from the books or the show?
Book canon. This profile follows George R. R. Martin’s novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.