Kingspyre Tower

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Kingspyre Tower, the tallest of Harrenhal's towers, by Lino Drieghe © Fantasy Flight Games

Kingspyre Tower is the largest and tallest of the five melted towers of Harrenhal.[1]

Layout

The tower is lopsided beneath the weight of slagged stone, the result of dragonfire.[1] There is an arching stone bridge that connects it to the Widow's Tower.[2] The castellan's chambers are within this tower, and are as spacious as any lords.[3]

The lord's bedchamber contains a hearth and a featherbad. Half a flight of stairs below is the solar, a spare, drafty room that is as large as a hall in a smaller castle. The solar contains a huge oaken table.[4]

History

The original name for the tower is unknown, and it received its new name after the burning of Harrenhal during Aegon's Conquest. King Harren the Black and his sons burned alive in the tower when King Aegon I Targaryen had his dragon, Balerion, attack the castle with dragonflame.[1]

Prince Daemon Targaryen led the assault on Harrenhal at the start of the Dance of the Dragons. The castellan of Harrenhal, the elderly Ser Simon Strong, was quick to strike his banners when the prince lighted atop Kingspyre on Caraxes.[5] Later in the war, Alys Rivers watched the Battle Above the Gods Eye between Caraxes and Vhagar from the top of Kingspyre Tower. When the two dragons crashed into the Gods Eye, a gout of water as tall as Kingspyre is said to have splashed up.[6]

Recent Events

A Clash of Kings

When Lord Tywin Lannister holds Harrenhal during the War of the Five Kings, he keeps his apartments in Kingspyre Tower.[1]

Ser Amory Lorch, the castellan after Tywin leaves, resides in the tower. The Wailing Tower is closed off, so servants such as the incognito Arya Stark move to cellars beneath Kingspyre.[3]

Lord Roose Bolton takes up residence in Kingspyre after the fall of Harrenhal to northmen, and he leeches himself in the lord's bedchamber. After bringing Lord Bolton his supper, Arya observes him throw a book into a hearth. That night, Arya sneaks through a narrow cellar window during her escape from Harrenhal, and she steals a dagger and a sheepskin map of the Trident from Roose's table.[4]

Quotes

If there were ghosts in Harrenhal, they never troubled her. It was the living men she feared, Weese and Ser Gregor Clegane and Lord Tywin Lannister himself, who kept his apartments in Kingspyre Tower, still the tallest and mightiest of all, though lopsided beneath the weight of the slagged stone that made it look like some giant half-melted black candle.[1]

—thoughts of Arya Stark

References and Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
  2. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 38, Arya VIII.
  3. 3.0 3.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 47, Arya IX.
  4. 4.0 4.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 64, Arya X.
  5. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son.
  6. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Triumphant.