none; relies on a network of informants known as his 'little birds'
Notable for
running the small council's intelligence network as Master of Whisperers under three kings, while keeping his true loyalties famously unreadable
A eunuch who has outlasted three kings and every lord who ever underestimated him by the simple method of trading in the one currency no one thinks to search a man for: what other people don't know he knows.
A Boy Sold and Remade
Varys was born a slave in Lys and apprenticed as an orphan to a troupe of traveling mummers who worked the Free Cities and occasionally Westeros. In Myr, a sorcerer paid his master a price too large to refuse, drugged him helpless without dulling a single sense, and cut his manhood away to burn in a blood ritual whose purpose Varys has never fully explained to anyone; he recalls a voice answering from the flames in a language he did not know. Cast into the street afterward, he survived by begging, thieving, and worse, and swore — out of pure spite for the man who had used him — to live regardless.
He became the finest thief in Myr before a rival forced him out, and remade himself in Pentos into something new: a broker of information rather than goods, patient enough to let a secret ripen for years before spending it.
The Master of Whisperers
He served as Master of Whisperers to Aerys II, then to Robert Baratheon after the dynasty that made him fell, surviving two changes of regime by making himself indispensable to men who trusted no one, least of all each other. Through the War of the Five Kings he played every faction against the others with an even hand and an unreadable motive, insisting always that his loyalty was to 'the realm' rather than to any single claimant to it.
Late in the war he revealed a hand few had suspected: a long-nursed plan to restore what he holds to be the last legitimate scion of the Targaryen dynasty to the Iron Throne, a young man traveling under the name 'Young Griff' whose true identity the text leaves carefully unconfirmed. Varys fled King's Landing after killing Grand Maester Pycelle and Ser Kevan Lannister with poisoned darts, vanishing from the capital on an agenda entirely his own.
Appearances
In the novels
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons
On screen
HBO's Game of Thrones — Seasons 1–8
Key events
unknownBorn a slave in Lys, of unrecorded parentage.
childhoodIs castrated by a traveling sorcerer in a ritual whose true purpose he alludes to but never fully explains.
youthSurvives as a thief and informant across the Free Cities before crossing to Westeros.
before 283 ACRises to Master of Whisperers under Aerys II, building an intelligence network of 'little birds.'
283 ACAdvises that Tywin Lannister's forces be let into King's Landing during the Sack, then survives the change of dynasty by making himself indispensable to Robert Baratheon's small council.
298 AC onwardServes as Master of Whisperers under Robert, then Joffrey, while quietly protecting a Targaryen restoration plot of his own.
300 ACReveals to Tyrion Lannister a hidden hand in bringing him to King's Landing years earlier, and helps him flee the city after Tywin's death.
300 ACDeparts Westeros for Essos, his ultimate loyalties still an open question.
Reading the character
Varys is built around a paradox the text never resolves: a man whose entire value rests on being unreadable, who nonetheless keeps insisting, in nearly every scene, that everything he does is 'for the realm.' Whether that phrase describes a genuine, if unconventional, patriotism or the most convincing cover story in Westeros is left for the reader to weigh scene by scene rather than settled by any single confession.
What is not in doubt is his method: information gathered patiently across three reigns, spent sparingly, and never confused with loyalty to any specific king. He survives Aerys, Robert, and years of shifting alliances at court by treating every throne as temporary — which makes him one of the few characters in the story who reads the game correctly even when he loses a piece.
The arc of Varys
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
His birth year, the true purpose of his castration ritual, and the identity of the pretender he calls Young Griff are all withheld or left ambiguous by the published text.
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
No character in the published chronicle has survived longer on pure information than Varys, and none has been harder to pin to a single loyalty — which, the maesters suspect, is exactly the outcome he has spent a lifetime engineering.
SourcesAGOTACOKASOSADWD
Who is Varys?
A eunuch who has outlasted three kings and every lord who ever underestimated him by the simple method of trading in the one currency no one thinks to search a man for: what other people don't know he knows.
Is Varys 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.