Difference between revisions of "Red Keep"

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[[File:Red Keep at Kings Landing, Ted Nasmith.jpg|300px|thumb|The Red Keep over [[King's Landing]], art by Ted Nasmith ©]]
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[[File:Red Keep at Kings Landing, Ted Nasmith.jpg|300px|thumb|The Red Keep over [[King's Landing]] by Ted Nasmith ©]]
The '''Red Keep''' is a castle containing the [[Iron Throne]] and is the home of the [[Lord of the Seven Kingdoms]]. It is located in [[King's Landing]], the capital of the [[Seven Kingdoms]], where it sits on [[Aegon's Hill]].  
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The '''Red Keep''' is a castle on [[Aegon's Hill]] in [[King's Landing]], the capital of the [[Seven Kingdoms]]. The Red Keep contains the [[Iron Throne]] and is the home of King [[Robert I Baratheon]], [[Lord of the Seven Kingdoms]].
  
==History==
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==Layout==
[[Aegon I Targaryen|Aegon the Conqueror]] first set foot on [[Westeros]] in the area of King's Landing at the start of his [[War of Conquest]]. On the highest of the three hills of the area, named Aegon's Hill, he built his first fort of earth and wood,{{Ref|aGoT|18}} the [[Aegonfort]].{{ref|AWOIAF| King's Landing}} After the completion of the Conquest, Aegon ordered the construction of a permanent royal castle on the hill. The construction was completed during the reign of [[Maegor I Targaryen]], who killed all those who worked on the castle to preserve its secrets.{{Ref|aGoT|18}}
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:''See also: [[:Category:Images of the Red Keep|Images of the Red Keep]]''
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[[File: The iron throne.jpg|thumb|The [[Iron Throne]] in the throne room by Marc Simonetti ©]]
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The Red Keep is made of pale red stone{{ref|AGOT|18}} and overlooks the mouth of the [[Blackwater Rush]].{{ref|ACOK|58}} The Red Keep has seven massive drum-towers crowned with iron ramparts.{{ref|AGOT|18}} The castle is smaller than [[Winterfell]]{{ref|AGOT|32}} and is patrolled by gold cloaks.{{ref|AGOT|47}} Much of the Red Keep is connected underground.{{ref|ASOS|58}}
  
==The Castle==
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Massive curtain walls surround the castle, with nests and crenelations for archers.{{Ref|aGoT|18}} Thick stone parapets, some four feet high, protect the outer edge of the wall ramparts, where the heads of traitors are traditionally placed on iron spikes between the crenels at the gatehouse.{{ref|AGOT|67}} The walls have great bronze gates{{ref|AGOT|20}} and portcullises, with narrow postern doors nearby.{{ref|AGOT|18}} The castle also has great cornerforts.{{ref|ACOK|52}} The immense barbican has a cobbled square in front of it.{{ref|ACOK|41}} Behind the walls are small inner yards, vaulted halls, covered bridges, barracks of the [[City Watch of King's Landing]], dungeons, granaries, kennels, and stables.{{ref|AGOT|18}}{{ref|AGOT|32}}{{ref|ASOS|12}}{{ref|ASOS|54}}
:''See also: [[:Category:Images of the Red Keep|Images of the Red Keep]]''
 
The Red Keep is made of pale red stone. It has seven massive drum-towers crowned with iron ramparts. Massive curtain walls surround the keep, with nests and crenelations for archers.{{Ref|aGoT|18}} Thick stone parapets, some four feet high, protect the outer edge of the wall ramparts, where the heads of traitors are traditionally placed on iron spikes between the crenels at the gatehouse. The walls have great bronze gates and portcullises, with narrow postern doors nearby. The immense barbican has a cobbled square in front of it. Behind the walls are small inner yards, vaulted halls, covered bridges, barracks of the [[gold cloaks]], dungeons and granaries.
 
  
[[File:Red Keep Dragon Cellar by Kim Pope.jpg|300px|thumb|Dragon skulls in the Red Keep cellars<br>© Fantasy Flight Games]]
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Relics of the [[House Targaryen|Targaryen]] dynasty, such as dusty suits of black armor, sit in some corridors.{{ref|AGOT|20}} Doors are made of oak banded with black iron.{{ref|AGOT|22}} Sweet-smelling rushes can be spread on floors.{{ref|ACOK|57}}{{ref|ASOS|6}} The Red Keep is full of cats, including those kept as pets as well as strays, like a [[Balerion (cat)|black tomcat]].{{ref|AGOT|32}}
Inside, the Keep holds the [[Iron Throne]], the seat of the monarch, and has several gathering halls, including the Great Hall and the Queen's Ballroom. Relics of the [[House Targaryen|Targaryen]] dynasty, such as dusty suits of black armor and dragons' skulls, sit in hallways. Doors are made of oak banded with black iron. Rushes are used on the floors as the weather cools. Overall, the Keep is not particularly large, being smaller than [[Winterfell]].
 
  
==Layout==
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===Great Hall===
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The Great Hall contains the throne room of the king. The [[Iron Throne]] sits on a raised iron dais with high and narrow steps. A long carpet stretches from the throne to the Great Hall's great oak-and-bronze doors. The cavernous Great Hall is cavernous can feast a thousand people.{{ref|AGOT|22}} It is oriented north to south, with high, narrow windows on the eastern and western walls. [[Skulls of the Targaryen dragons]] once adorned the walls, but King [[Robert I Baratheon]] had them moved to a cellar and replaced with hunting tapestries at the beginning of his reign.{{ref|AGOT|13}}{{ref|AGOT|43}} [[Small council]] sessions are sometimes held in the throne room.{{ref|ADWD|Epilogue}}
  
 
===Maegor's Holdfast===
 
===Maegor's Holdfast===
[[Maegor's Holdfast]] is a massive square fortress inside the heart of the Red Keep behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes. It is a castle-within-a-castle. The royal apartments are in Maegor's Holdfast.{{ref|AGOT|47}} The king's bedchamber has twin hearths.
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[[Maegor's Holdfast]] is a massive square fortress inside the heart of the Red Keep. The castle-within-a-castle is situated behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes. Maegor's Holdfast includes the royal apartments, and the king's bedchamber contains a canopied bed and twin hearths.{{ref|AGOT|47}}
  
====Queen's Ballroom====
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Maegor's Holdfast contains the [[Queen's Ballroom]], a hall only half as big as the Small Hall in the Tower of the Hand. The ballroom seats one hundred and has beaten silver mirrors behind the wall sconces which makes the torch's light seem twice as bright. Its walls are paneled with richly carved wood and it has a gallery above the main floor. High arched windows sit along the south wall.{{Ref|aCoK|57}}
The Holdfast contains the [[Queen's Ballroom]], a hall only half as big as the Small Hall in the Tower of the Hand. The Ballroom seats one hundred and has beaten silver mirrors behind the wall sconces which makes the torch's light seem twice as bright. Its walls are paneled with richly carved wood and it has a gallery above the main floor. High arched windows sit along the south wall.{{Ref|aCoK|57}}
 
  
[[File:Tower of the Hand.jpg|300px|thumb|Tower of the Hand<br>© Fantasy Flight Games]]
 
 
===Tower of the Hand===
 
===Tower of the Hand===
The [[Tower of the Hand]] contains the chambers of the [[Hand of the King]]. Its Small Hall is a long room with a high-vaulted ceiling and bench space for two hundred.{{ref|AGOT|22}} The private audience chamber is not as large as the king's, but has [[Myr]]ish rugs, wall hangings, and a golden-tinted round window that give it a sense of intimacy. The Tower also has a [[solar]], and a [[w:garderobe|garderobe]]. The tower has tall windows.{{ref|AGOT|39}} Below the tower is the [[chamber of the dragon mosaic]].
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[[File:Tower of the Hand.jpg|300px|thumb|[[Tower of the Hand]] by Ryan Barger © Fantasy Flight Games]]
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The [[Tower of the Hand]] contains the chambers of the [[Hand of the King]]. Its Small Hall is a long room with a high-vaulted ceiling and bench space for two hundred.{{ref|AGOT|22}} The private audience chamber is not as large as the king's, but has [[Myr]]ish rugs, wall hangings, and a golden-tinted round window that give it a sense of intimacy. The Tower of the Hand has a [[solar]] and a garderobe,{{ref|ACOK|29}} as well as tall windows.{{ref|AGOT|39}} Below the tower is the [[chamber of the dragon mosaic]].
  
===Maidenvault===
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===Other Buildings===
The [[Maidenvault]] is a long, slate-roofed building located behind the royal sept. Its entry has two tall carved doors. [[Baelor I Targaryen]] confined his sisters there when he came to the throne, claiming it would prevent any carnal thoughts.{{ref|ASOS|6}} Mace Tyrell's court stayed there during their visit to King's Landing.{{ref|ASOS|6}}
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[[File:White Sword Tower.jpg|300px|thumb|right|[[White Sword Tower]] by Franz Miklis © Fantasy Flight Games]]
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The council chamber hosts meetings of the [[small council]]. It contains a long table,{{ref|AGOT|51}} at the head of which may sit the king.{{ref|ASOS|19}} The chamber is richly furnished with [[Myr]]ish carpet, a carved screen from the [[Summer Isles]], and tapestries from [[Lys]], [[Norvos]], and [[Qohor]]. The chamber's door is flanked by two [[Valyrian sphinx]]es.{{ref|AGOT|20}} The door can be guarded by a knight of the [[Kingsguard]] when the council is in session.{{ref|AFFC|17}}
  
===White Sword Tower===
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[[White Sword Tower]], located near [[Blackwater Bay]], contains the chambers of the [[Kingsguard]].{{ref|ASOS|67}}
[[File:White Sword Tower.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The White Sword Tower<br>© Fantasy Flight Games]]
 
[[White Sword Tower]] contains the chambers of the [[Kingsguard]]. It is a slender structure of four stories built into an angle of the castle wall overlooking the bay. A circular white room, known as the Round Room, has whitewashed stone walls hung with white woolen tapestries, and forms the first floor. A large white table ([[weirwood]] carved in the shape of a shield) with seven chairs provides a meeting space for the order. The [[w:undercroft|undercroft]] holds arms and armor, the second and third floors hold the small sparse sleeping cells of the six brothers of the Kingsguard, and the topmost floor is given over to the Lord Commander's apartments. His rooms are sparse as well, but spacious, and they stand above the outer walls.{{ref|ASOS|67}}
 
  
===Great Hall===
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The [[Maidenvault]] is a long, slate-roofed building located behind the royal sept. Its entry has two tall carved doors.{{ref|ASOS|6}} The royal [[sept]] inside the Red Keep is located in front of the Maidenvault.{{ref|ASOS|6}} There are seven altars, one for each of the aspects of the [[Faith of the Seven]], and crystal windows are placed high in the walls.{{Ref|aCoK|57}} The castle also has a library.{{ref|ASOS|12}}
The Great Hall is the throne room of the king. The [[Iron Throne]] sits on a raised iron dais with high and narrow steps. A long carpet stretches from the throne to the Hall's great oak-and-bronze doors. The Hall itself is cavernous, and can sit 1,000 people. It is oriented north to south, with high, narrow windows on the eastern and western walls. Skulls of the Targaryen [[dragon]]s once adorned the walls, but [[Robert I Baratheon]] had them replaced with hunting tapestries at the beginning of his reign.{{ref|AGOT|43}}
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The Kitchen Keep is located at a courtyard across from the castle's main kitchen. Lord [[Gyles Rosby]] has spacious apartments above the Kitchen Keep, including a large bedchamber, a solar, a bath, a dressing room, and small adjoining chambers for servants.{{ref|ASOS|58}} The Red Keep also has a small kitchen and a pig yard.{{ref|ACOK|18}}
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The [[godswood]] of the Red Keep is an acre of elm, alder and black cottonwood trees that overlook the [[Blackwater Rush]]. The [[heart tree]] is a great oak with limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines.{{ref|AGOT|25}}
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The rookery is the home of the [[raven]]s used by [[maesters]] of the [[Citadel]]. The [[Grand Maester]] has his chambers beneath the rookery.{{ref|ADWD|Epilogue}}
  
===Traitor's Walk===
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The snug apartments of Lord [[Varys]], the [[master of whisperers]], are three windowless chambers with a hearth near the northern wall. Varys sleeps on a stone bed.{{ref|ASOS|12}}
The [[Traitor's Walk]] is the squat, half-round tower that contains the entrance to the dungeons. The top floor holds the cells for the prisoners who were to be kept in a degree of comfort. The entrance to the dungeons sits on the ground floor of the tower, with the dungeons beneath the tower. Between the two prisons are rooms for the [[King's Justice]], the [[Chief Gaoler]] and the [[Lord Confessor]].{{ref|AFFC|27}}
 
  
 
===Dungeon===
 
===Dungeon===
The dungeon of the Red Keep has four levels. On the upper level are cells with high narrow windows where common criminals are confined together. The second level has smaller, personal cells without windows for highborn captives. Torches in the halls cast light through the bars. The third level cells, the "[[black cells]]", are smaller still, and have doors of wood so that no light enters them. These are reserved for the most vile and dangerous prisoners. The lowest level is used for torture. It is supposedly safer to go through the fourth level of the dungeons in darkness, because there are things one would not wish to see.{{ref|ASOS|77}}
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The Traitor's Walk is a pathway{{ref|AGOT|32}}{{ref|ASOS|59}} leading to a squat, half-round tower.{{ref|AFFC|27}} The top floor holds cells for prisoners kept in a degree of comfort, such as [[knight]]s or [[lord]]lings who might be ransomed, while the entrance to the dungeons sits on the ground floor. The other floors between contain rooms for the [[King's Justice]], the [[Chief Gaoler]], and the [[Lord Confessor]].{{ref|AFFC|27}} The dungeon entrance consists of a door of hammered iron and another door of splintered grey wood.{{ref|AFFC|27}}
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King [[Maegor I Targaryen]] ordered that the dungeons below the squat tower have four levels.{{ref|ASOS|77}} The uppermost level has cells with high narrow windows where common criminals are confined together. The second level has smaller, personal cells without windows for highborn captives. Torches in the halls cast light through the bars. The third level cells, the [[black cells]], are smaller still and have doors of wood so that no light enters them,{{ref|ASOS|77}} but they have not been used in recent years.{{ref|AFFC|7}} The lowest level is used for torture. It is supposedly safer to go through the fourth level of the dungeons in darkness, because there are things one would not wish to see.{{ref|ASOS|77}} The dungeon has twisting turnpike stairs and iron gates.{{ref|ASOS|77}} A path from the lowest level leads to the [[chamber of the dragon mosaic]] below the [[Tower of the Hand]] and to the [[Blackwater Rush]].{{ref|ASOS|77}}
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===Secret Passages===
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[[File:Red Keep tunnels.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Red Keep tunnels by Jonny Klein © Fantasy Flight Games]]
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The Red Keep and [[Aegon's High Hill]] have a network of secret passages and tunnels. King [[Maegor I Targaryen]] had them built to enable him to make a quick escape should his enemies ever trap him.{{ref|ASOS|12}} The tunnels are supposedly full of traps. Some tunnels are of stone, while others are earth supported by timbers. Some of them are so small that a grown man must crawl through them. Some pass close to other rooms in the Red Keep, allowing a hidden person to eavesdrop on conversations.{{ref|asos|77}}
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The bedchamber used by Lord [[Varys]] contains a mechanism that causes his stone slab of a bed to float up and reveal a hidden staircase.{{ref|asos|12}} One secret passage leads from the bedchamber of the [[Tower of the Hand]] to the [[chamber of the dragon mosaic]] below.{{ref|asos|77}}{{ref|adwd|1}} There is also a secret way to get out of the Red Keep onto the cliffs facing the sea. Narrow handholds, impossible to see from the ground, have been cut into the rock so one may climb down to a trail beside the [[Blackwater Rush]].{{ref|agot|20}}{{ref|asos|61}} Another passage out of the Red Keep leads to a sewer that empties into the river.{{ref|agot|32}}
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Maegor's Holdfast is the only building in the Red Keep that has no secret passages, as Maegor "wanted no rats in his own walls", except for one escape door that does not connect to any other passage in the Red Keep.{{ref|asos|12}} Characters familiar with the secret passages include Maegor, [[Cheese (the rat-catcher)|Cheese]], Lord [[Larys Strong]], Varys and his [[little birds]], and Lord [[Petyr Baelish]].
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==History==
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===Construction===
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[[File: Franz Miklis red keep.jpg|thumb|The Red Keep by Franz Miklis © Fantasy Flight Games]]
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At the start of [[Aegon's Conquest]], [[Aegon I Targaryen|Aegon the Conqueror]] landed at the mouth of the [[Blackwater Rush]]. On the highest of the three hills of the area, Aegon's Hill, he built his first fort of earth and wood,{{Ref|aGoT|18}} the [[Aegonfort]].{{ref|AWOIAF| King's Landing}} The new city of [[King's Landing]], the capital of the [[Seven Kingdoms]], developed around the fort. In {{date|35}} King Aegon I tore down the wooden Aegonfort so a more fitting stone castle could be raised for [[House Targaryen]], tasking his sister, Queen [[Visenya Targaryen]], and the [[Hand of the King]], Lord [[Alyn Stokeworth]], with overseeing its construction.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aegon I}}{{ref|TSOTD}}
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When Aegon died at [[Dragonstone]] in {{date|37}}, he was succeeded by his son, [[Aenys I Targaryen]], who was crowned at Dragonstone according to [[Gyldayn]]{{ref|TSOTD}} or in the foundations of the new castle in King's Landing according to [[Yandel]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aenys I}} Aenys was obsessed with the new castle, which the people of King's Landing named the Red Keep because of its stone,{{ref|TSOTD}} but the king passed away at Dragonstone during the [[Faith Militant uprising]] in {{date|42}}. Aenys was succeeded by his brother, [[Maegor I Targaryen|Maegor I]]. The Red Keep and the [[Sept of Remembrance]] were seized by [[Warrior's Sons]] and [[Poor Fellows]], but Maegor eventually used [[Balerion]] to destroy the [[Faith Militant]] at the sept and solidify his rule.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I}}
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Maegor took personal charge of the Red Keep's construction in {{date|43}}. He went beyond the plans of Aegon and Aenys by adding a moated redoubt, later known as [[Maegor's Holdfast]], within the walls of the Red Keep. He also commanded that secret passages, false walls, and trapdoors be introduced to the castle and tunnels through Aegon's High Hill.{{ref|TSOTD}} After Prince [[Viserys Targaryen (son of Aenys I)|Viserys Targaryen]] was tortured to death by [[Tyanna of the Tower]] in {{date|44}}, King Maegor abandoned his nephew's body in the courtyard of the Red Keep.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I}} Many members of [[House Harroway]] were thrown onto the spikes below Maegor's Holdfast when the king extinguished the family in {{Date|44}}.{{ref|TSOTD}} When the castle was completed in {{Date|45}}, Maegor threw a feast for its builders, carvers, and stonemasons. After three days of feasting, however, Maegor the Cruel had all of the craftsmen killed so that only he would know the Red Keep's secrets.{{Ref|aGoT|18}}{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I}} With the Red Keep complete, Maegor then began construction of the [[Dragonpit]]. When Maegor the Cruel was found dead on the [[Iron Throne]] in {{Date|48}}, one theory suggested that a mason familiar with the castle's secret passages had escaped Maegor's massacre and assassinated the king.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I}}
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King [[Jaehaerys I Targaryen]] chose Septon [[Barth]], who worked in the Red Keep's library, to serve as his [[Hand of the King]].{{ref|ASOS|54}} The ashes of Jaehaerys and his queen, [[Alysanne Targaryen]], were interred beneath the Red Keep after their deaths.{{ref|TRP}}
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===Dance of the Dragons===
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[[File:Red Keep Dragon Cellar by Kim Pope.jpg|300px|thumb|[[Dragon skulls]] by Kim Pope © HBO]]
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The Red Keep was a place of song and splendor during the reign of the generous King [[Viserys I Targaryen]],{{ref|TRP}} but civil war erupted after his death with the [[Dance of the Dragons]].{{ref|TPATQ}} Many men were imprisoned in the dungeons once [[Aegon II Targaryen]] took the throne.{{ref|TPATQ}} [[Blood and Cheese]] infiltrated the Red Keep and assassinated Prince [[Jaehaerys Targaryen (son of Aegon II)|Jaehaerys Targaryen]] to avenge the death of Prince [[Lucerys Velaryon]] at [[Storm's End]].
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Queen [[Rhaenyra Targaryen]] and her spouse, Prince [[Daemon Targaryen]], landed in the outer ward of the Red Keep during the [[fall of King's Landing]].{{ref|TPATQ}} Aegon's bride, Queen [[Helaena Targaryen]], threw herself to her death from [[Maegor's Holdfast]].{{ref|TPATQ}} Rhaenyra fled the city after the [[Storming of the Dragonpit]], and Ser [[Perkin the Flea]] claimed the abandoned Red Keep for [[Trystane Truefyre]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aegon II}} Lord [[Borros Baratheon]] recovered King's Landing for Aegon II during the [[Moon of the Three Kings]], but the king was eventually found dead within the Red Keep after the [[Battle of the Kingsroad]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aegon II}}
  
[[File:Red Keep tunnels.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Red Keep underground secret passages<br>© Fantasy Flight Games]]
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Lord [[Cregan Stark]] administered justice for King [[Aegon III Targaryen]] during the [[Hour of the Wolf]] in {{date|131}}.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aegon III}} During the [[regency of Aegon III]], the king and his brother, Prince [[Viserys II Targaryen|Viserys]], were besieged in Maegor's Holdfast for eighteen days by Ser [[Marston Waters]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aegon III}} Ser [[Lucas Lothston]], the master-at-arms of the Red Keep, was granted [[Harrenhal]] by Aegon in {{date|151}}.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Riverlands: House Tully}}
  
===Secret passages===
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===Blackfyre Rebellions===
The Red Keep has a network of secret passages and tunnels. King Maegor had them built to enable him to make a quick escape should his enemies ever trap him. The tunnels are supposedly full of traps. Some tunnels are of stone, while others are earth supported by timbers. Some of them are so small that a grown man must crawl through them. Some pass very close to other rooms in the Keep, allowing a hidden person to eavesdrop on conversations.{{ref|asos|77}} The bedchamber used by [[Varys]] contains a secret lever that causes a stone slab to float up and reveal a staircase.{{ref|asos|12}} One secret passage leads from the bedchamber of the Tower of the Hand to the outside.{{ref|asos|77}}{{ref|adwd|1}} There is also a secret way to get out of the Red Keep onto the cliffs facing the sea. Narrow handholds, impossible to see from the ground, have been cut into the rock so one may climb down to a trail beside the Blackwater.{{ref|agot|20}}{{ref|asos|61}} Another passage out of the Red Keep leads to a sewer that empties into the Blackwater.{{ref|agot|32}}
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King [[Baelor I Targaryen]] confined his sisters in the [[Maidenvault]] when he came to the throne, claiming it would prevent any carnal thoughts.{{ref|ASOS|6}} [[Maron Martell]], [[Prince of Dorne]], submitted to King [[Daeron II Targaryen]] before the Iron Throne, after which the pair rode to the [[Great Sept of Baelor]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Daeron II}}
  
Notably, Maegor's Holdfast is the only building in the Red Keep that has no secret passages, as Maegor "wanted no rats in his own walls", except for one secret escape door that does not connect to any other passage in the Red Keep.{{ref|asos|12}}
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Ser [[Quentyn Ball]], the castle's master-at-arms, helped Ser [[Daemon I Blackfyre|Daemon Blackfyre]] escape the Red Keep at the start of the [[First Blackfyre Rebellion]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Daeron II}} The [[Raven's Teeth]] of Lord [[Brynden Rivers]] garrisoned the castle during the reign of King [[Aerys I Targaryen]].{{ref|TSS}} [[Daemon II Blackfyre]] was kept hostage below the castle by Bloodraven after the [[Second Blackfyre Rebellion]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aerys I}} Ser [[Aegor Rivers]] was a prisoner in the Red Keep after the [[Third Blackfyre Rebellion]], but Bittersteel eventually escaped to the [[Free Cities]] while traveling to the [[Wall]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aerys I}} The murder of [[Aenys Blackfyre]] at the Red Keep by order of Brynden Rivers led to Bloodraven being sent to the Wall by King [[Aegon V Targaryen]].{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V}}
  
Characters familiar with the secret passages:
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===The Mad King===
* King [[Maegor I Targaryen]]
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[[File: Jason Engle There Are No Men Like Me.jpg|thumb|Ser [[Jaime Lannister]] and the Red Keep by Jason Engle © Fantasy Flight Games]]
* [[Cheese (the rat-catcher)|Cheese]]
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Lord [[Tywin Lannister]], the [[Hand of the King]] to [[Aerys II Targaryen]], desired to have his brother, Ser [[Tygett Lannister]], appointed as master-at-arms of the Red Keep. The growing rift between the king and his Hand led to Ser [[Willem Darry]] instead being chosen in {{date|170}}.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II}}
* Lord [[Larys Strong]]
 
* Lord [[Varys]]
 
* Varys's [[little birds]]
 
* Lord [[Petyr Baelish]]
 
  
===Godswood===
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The Mad King remained in the Red Keep for four years after the [[Defiance of Duskendale]],{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II}} but he unexpectedly left the castle to attend the [[tourney at Harrenhal]].{{ref|ASOS|42}}{{ref|ADWD|67}} His heir, Prince [[Rhaegar Targaryen]], chose to reside at [[Dragonstone]] instead of the capital.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II}} Aerys tasked the [[Alchemists' Guild]] with using [[wildfire]] to ward off winter in {{date|281}}, the [[Year of the False Spring]], and green flame burned on the walls of the Red Keep.{{ref|TWOIAF| The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring}}
The godswood at the Red Keep is an acre of elm, alder and black cottonwood trees that overlook the [[Blackwater Rush]]. The [[heart tree]] is a great oak, whose limbs have become overgrown with smokeberry vines.{{ref|AGOT|25}}
 
  
===Sept===
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After [[Lyanna Stark]] was abducted by Rhaegar, her brother, [[Brandon Stark]], rode into the Red Keep to challenge Rhaegar. Aerys had Brandon and his companions arrested, however, and summoned their fathers to court. The king had almost all of them murdered, with Brandon and his father, Lord [[Rickard Stark]], being executed in the throne room.{{ref|ACOK|55}} Later during [[Robert's Rebellion]], Rhaegar rode from the Red Keep to confront Lord [[Robert I Baratheon|Robert Baratheon]],{{ref|AFFC|8}} but the prince was slain by Robert in the [[Battle of the Trident]].{{ref|AGOT|4}}
The royal sept inside the Red Keep has crystal windows placed high in the walls. There are seven altars, one for each of the aspects of the [[Faith of the Seven]].{{Ref|aCoK|57}} It is located in front of the [[Maidenvault]].{{ref|ASOS|6}}
 
  
===Rookery===
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Ser [[Jaime Lannister]], a member of the Mad King's [[Kingsguard]], held the Red Keep amid the [[Sack of King's Landing]]. Ser [[Gregor Clegane]] and Ser [[Amory Lorch]] climbed the walls of [[Maegor's Holdfast]] and slew Rhaegar's wife, Princess [[Elia Martell]], and children, Princess [[Rhaenys Targaryen (daughter of Rhaegar)|Rhaenys]] and Prince [[Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar)|Aegon Targaryen]].{{ref|ASOS|11}}{{ref|ASOS|53}} Jaime wanted the king to surrender the castle, but Aerys instead wanted to enact his [[wildfire plot]], with [[wildfire]] having been hidden throughout the city, including the castle's cellars. Jaime slew [[Rossart]] while the [[Hand of the King]] hurried to a postern gate, and then Jaime killed Aerys before the [[Iron Throne]].{{ref|ASOS|37}} Willem Darry eventually helped Aerys's surviving children, Prince [[Viserys Targaryen|Viserys]] and Princess [[Daenerys Targaryen|Daenerys]], flee Dragonstone before [[assault on Dragonstone|its assault]] by [[Stannis Baratheon]].{{ref|AGOT|3}}
The rookery is the home of the [[raven]]s used by [[maesters]] of the [[Citadel]]. The [[Grand Maester]] has his chambers beneath the rookery.{{ref|ADWD|Epilogue}}
+
 
 +
===House Baratheon===
 +
King [[Robert I Baratheon]] claimed the [[Iron Throne]] after the death of King [[Aerys II Targaryen]]. Ser [[Aron Santagar]] serves as [[master-at-arms]] of the Red Keep, while Ser [[Ilyn Payne]] is the [[King's Justice]].{{ref|AGOT|Appendix}} Grand Maester [[Pycelle]] handles the castle's [[raven]]s.{{ref|AGOT|25}} [[Moon Boy]] and [[Orland of Oldtown|Orland]] are Robert's [[fool]] and bard, respectively.{{ref|ASOS|Appendix}}
  
 
==Recent Events==
 
==Recent Events==
 
===''A Game of Thrones''===
 
===''A Game of Thrones''===
Lost in the dark cellars of the Red Keep, [[Arya Stark]] overhears a conversation between two strangers to her, [[Varys]] and [[Illyrio Mopatis]].{{ref|AGOT|32}} Queen [[Cersei Lannister]] has Lord [[Eddard Stark]] thrown into the dungeon of the Red Keep for plotting against King [[Joffrey Baratheon]]. The new king has the hunting tapestries of [[Robert Baratheon]] removed from the throne room.{{ref|AGOT|57}}
+
[[File: Joshua CairosNedStark.jpg|thumb|[[Eddard Stark]] in the council chambers by Joshua Cairós © Fantasy Flight Games]]
 +
Lady [[Lysa Arryn]] abruptly flees the Red Keep in the night after the death of her husband, Lord [[Jon Arryn]].{{ref|AGOT|34}} The new [[Hand of the King]], Lord [[Eddard Stark]], and his daughters, [[Sansa Stark|Sansa]] and [[Arya Stark|Arya]], take up residence in Jon's former chambers in the [[Tower of the Hand]].{{ref|AGOT|20}}
 +
 
 +
Lost in the dark cellars of the Red Keep, Arya overhears a conversation between two strangers to her, [[Varys]] and [[Illyrio Mopatis]].{{ref|AGOT|32}}<ref>[[So Spake Martin]]: [http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/1261/ Sentry Books Signing (Calgary, Canada)], November 16, 2000</ref>
 +
 
 +
King [[Robert I Baratheon]] is taken to his chambers in [[Maegor's Holdfast]] after having been mortally wounded by a boar in the [[kingswood]].{{ref|AGOT|47}} After Robert dies, Queen [[Cersei Lannister]] has Eddard arrested in the throne room for plotting against King [[Joffrey Baratheon|Joffrey I Baratheon]].{{ref|AGOT|4}} Lord Stark is thrown into the dungeon{{ref|AGOT|58}} and Sansa is confined to the tallest tower of Maegor's,{{ref|AGOT|51}} but Arya escapes the [[House Lannister guards|Lannister guards]] by fleeing into the dungeons.{{ref|AGOT|50}}
 +
 
 +
Robert's hunting tapestries are removed from the throne room's walls.{{ref|AGOT|57}} Sansa is eventually granted freedom of the castle by Cersei, although the girl is not allowed to leave the Red Keep.{{ref|AGOT|57}} Ser [[Barristan Selmy]], having been dismissed from the [[Kingsguard]],{{ref|AGOT|57}} slays two [[gold cloaks]] in the stables while attempting to leave the Red Keep.{{ref|AGOT|60}}{{ref|ADWD|11}} Joffrey has the spiked heads of Eddard and other members of his retinue displayed on the castle's walls.{{ref|AGOT|67}} Sansa briefly considers pushing Joffrey from the battlements and falling to her death, but she refrains when [[Sandor Clegane]] treats her wounded lip.{{ref|ASOS|67}}
  
 
===''A Clash of Kings''===
 
===''A Clash of Kings''===
The [[Tourney for King Joffrey's 13th Name Day]] is held in the Red Keep.{{ref|ACOK|2}}
+
[[File: Zippo514 Giant of Lannister.jpg|thumb|[[Tyrion Lannister]] rallying troops at the [[Battle of the Blackwater|Blackwater]] by zippo514 ©]]
 +
With the [[War of the Five Kings]] having broken out, the [[tourney on King Joffrey's name day]] is held in the Red Keep.{{ref|ACOK|2}} [[Tyrion Lannister]], the acting Hand, has [[Vylarr]] remove the spiked heads.{{ref|ACOK|2}} Ser [[Dontos Hollard]] meets with [[Sansa Stark]] in the castle's [[godswood]] to avoid being overheard.{{ref|ACOK|18}}
  
During the [[Battle of the Blackwater]], [[Sansa Stark]] and other ladies take refuge in the Red Keep's sept and the Queen's Ballroom.{{ref|ACOK|57}}
+
When a mob of [[smallfolk]] ask for food outside the castle's gates, King [[Joffrey I Baratheon]] has his guards fire upon them.{{ref|ACOK|20}} The royal party flees back to the Red Keep during the [[riot of King's Landing]].{{ref|ACOK|41}}
 +
 
 +
During the [[Battle of the Blackwater]], Sansa and other ladies take refuge in the Red Keep's [[sept]] and the Queen's Ballroom.{{ref|ACOK|57}} Queen [[Cersei Lannister]] has Ser [[Ilyn Payne]], the [[King's Justice]], on hand in the ballroom,{{ref|ACOK|57}} and she recalls Joffrey to [[Maegor's Holdfast]] during the battle.{{ref|ACOK|62}} The castle's bells ring to celebrate the defeat of [[Stannis Baratheon]] by Lord [[Tywin Lannister]].{{ref|ACOK|62}} Afterward, heroes and captives are presented before Joffrey in the throne room.{{ref|ACOK|65}}
  
 
===''A Storm of Swords''===
 
===''A Storm of Swords''===
Sansa marries [[Tyrion Lannister]] in the Red Keep's sept.{{ref|ASOS|28}}
+
[[File: Cassandre Bolanshadowsandspiders.jpg|thumb|[[Varys]] spying amongst the cobwebs in the Red Keep by Cassandre Bolan © Fantasy Flight Games]]
 +
Lord [[Mace Tyrell]]'s court stays in the [[Maidenvault]] during their visit to King's Landing.{{ref|ASOS|6}} [[Tyrion Lannister]] houses Prince [[Oberyn Martell]]'s retinue from [[Dorne]] in a cornerfort away from the Tyrells.{{ref|ASOS|53}}
  
King Joffrey receives wedding gifts in the Queen's Ballroom. Following his wedding to [[Margaery Tyrell]] at the [[Great Sept of Baelor]], Joffrey [[Purple Wedding|dies at the reception]] in the throne room. Tyrion is blamed for Joffrey's death and is held in the dungeon. Sansa escapes the Red Keep with the assistance of the fool, [[Dontos Hollard]].{{ref|ASOS|61}}
+
Sansa marries [[Tyrion Lannister]] in the Red Keep's sept.{{ref|ASOS|28}} Tyrion and Sansa are granted Lord [[Gyles Rosby]]'s apartments in the Kitchen Keep.{{ref|ASOS|58}}
  
After he escapes the dungeon with the help of [[Varys]] and his brother, Ser [[Jaime Lannister]], Tyrion kills his father, Lord [[Tywin Lannister]], in the Tower of the Hand.{{ref|ASOS|77}}
+
King Joffrey receives wedding gifts in the Queen's Ballroom.{{ref|ASOS|59}} Following his wedding to [[Margaery Tyrell]] at the [[Great Sept of Baelor]], Joffrey [[Purple Wedding|dies at the reception]] in the throne room.{{ref|ASOS|60}} Tyrion is blamed for Joffrey's death and is held in a tower cell.{{ref|ASOS|66}} Sansa escapes the Red Keep with the assistance of Joffrey's new fool, [[Dontos Hollard]].{{ref|ASOS|61}} It is rumored that a ghostly [[direwolf]] prowls the Red Keep after Sansa's disappearance.{{ref|ASOS|62}} Ser [[Jaime Lannister]] has sex with his sister, Queen [[Cersei Lannister]], in the royal sept, where Joffrey's body has been placed.{{ref|ASOS|62}}
 +
 
 +
Oberyn represents Tyrion in a [[trial by combat]] held in the Red Keep's outer ward, but the Red Viper is slain by Ser [[Gregor Clegane]].{{ref|ASOS|70}} The night before Tyrion is to be executed, Jaime forces [[Varys]] to help his brother escape from the [[black cells]]. Varys then guides Tyrion to the [[chamber of the dragon mosaic]]. Tyrion climbs a secret passage to the [[Tower of the Hand]], where he kills his father, Lord [[Tywin Lannister]], the [[Hand of the King]].{{ref|ASOS|77}}
  
 
===''A Feast for Crows''===
 
===''A Feast for Crows''===
The Tower of the Hand is burned to the ground with [[wildfire]] by order of Queen [[Cersei Lannister]] in early {{date|300}}, after the death of her father, Tywin.{{ref|AFFC|12}}
+
[[File: Xia TaptaraRedKeepServant.jpg|thumb|A servant spying in the Red Keep by Xia Taptara © Fantasy Flight Games]]
 +
Queen Regent [[Cersei Lannister]] becomes paranoid after her father, Lord [[Tywin Lannister]], is found murdered in the [[Tower of the Hand]]. The queen fears that her younger brother, [[Tyrion Lannister]], is moving in secret passages, and that the vanished [[Varys]] has allied with [[Stannis Baratheon]].{{ref|AFFC|3}} Ser [[Jaime Lannister]] and guards unsuccessfully search for Tyrion and Varys.{{ref|AFFC|3}}{{ref|AFFC|8}}{{ref|AFFC|12}} The undergaoler [[Rugen]] has also disappeared.{{ref|AFFC|7}}
 +
 
 +
King [[Tommen Baratheon|Tommen I Baratheon]] weds [[Margaery Tyrell]] in a modest ceremony within the sept. After the feast in the Small Hall, Cersei has the Tower of the Hand burned to the ground with [[wildfire]].{{ref|AFFC|12}} The queen dreams of building a new royal castle on the other side of the [[Blackwater Rush]].{{ref|AFFC|12}} Cersei refuses to allow Ser [[Loras Tyrell]] to become the castle's new master-at-arms.{{ref|AFFC|25}} The dying Ser [[Gregor Clegane]] and enemies of Cersei are sent by the queen to the [[black cells]] for experimentation by [[Qyburn]].{{ref|AFFC|7}}{{ref|AFFC|32}}
  
 
===''A Dance with Dragons''===
 
===''A Dance with Dragons''===
The current Hand, Lord [[Mace Tyrell]], plans to construct a replacement Tower of the Hand triple the size of the original. Ser [[Kevan Lannister]] and Grand Maester [[Pycelle]] are assassinated by [[Varys]] and his "little birds" in the Grand Maester's chambers below the rookery.{{ref|ADWD|Epilogue}}
+
Ser [[Balon Swann]] informs Prince [[Doran Martell]] and his court at [[Sunspear]] that Ser [[Gregor Clegane]]'s dying screams were heard throughout the Red Keep.{{ref|ADWD|38}}
 +
 
 +
With Queen [[Cersei Lannister]] having been arrested by the [[High Sparrow]], her uncle, Ser [[Kevan Lannister]], takes up residence in the Red Keep as [[Lord Regent]]. Several accusers against [[Margaery Tyrell]] are imprisoned in dungeons under the castle.{{ref|ADWD|54}} Cersei embarks on a [[walk of atonement]] from the [[Great Sept of Baelor]] to the Red Keep.{{ref|ADWD|65}}
 +
 
 +
The new [[Hand of the King]], Lord [[Mace Tyrell]], plans to construct a replacement Tower of the Hand triple the size of the original. Kevan and [[Pycelle]] are assassinated by [[Varys]] and his "[[little birds]]" in the [[Grand Maester]]'s chambers below the rookery.{{ref|ADWD|Epilogue}}
  
 
==Quotes==
 
==Quotes==
{{Quote|[[Aegon I Targaryen|Aegon the Conqueror]] had commanded it built. His son [[Maegor I Targaryen|Maegor the Cruel]] had seen it completed. Afterward he had taken the heads of every stonemason, woodworker, and builder who had labored on it. Only the [[House Targaryen|blood of the dragon]] would ever know the secrets of the fortress the Dragonlords had built, he vowed.{{ref|agot|18}}}} – [[Catelyn Stark]]
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[[File: Red Keep.jpg|thumb|The Red Keep in ''[[Game of Thrones]]'']]
 +
{{quote|The Red Keep has its secrets, known only to the dead.{{ref|TSOTD}}|writings of [[Gyldayn]]}}
  
  
{{Quote|The Red Keep has ways known only to ghosts and spiders. {{Ref|aGoT|30}}}} – [[Varys]]  
+
{{Quote|[[Aegon I Targaryen|Aegon the Conqueror]] had commanded it built. His son [[Maegor I Targaryen|Maegor the Cruel]] had seen it completed. Afterward he had taken the heads of every stonemason, woodworker, and builder who had labored on it. Only the [[House Targaryen|blood of the dragon]] would ever know the secrets of the fortress the [[Dragonlords]] had built, he vowed.{{ref|agot|18}}|thoughts of [[Catelyn Stark]]}}
  
  
{{Quote|The Red Keep shelters two sorts of people, Lord [[Eddard Stark|Eddard]].  Those who are loyal to the realm, and those who are loyal only to themselves. {{Ref|aGoT|30}}}} – [[Varys]]
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{{Quote|The Red Keep has ways known only to ghosts and spiders.{{Ref|aGoT|30}}|[[Varys]] to [[Eddard Stark]]}}
  
  
{{Quote|[[Eddard Stark|Father]] said the Red Keep was smaller than [[Winterfell]], but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with that seemed to shift and change behind her.{{ref|AGOT|32}}}} – [[Arya Stark]]
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{{Quote|The Red Keep shelters two sorts of people, Lord Eddard. Those who are loyal to [[Seven Kingdoms|the realm]], and those who are loyal only to themselves. {{Ref|aGoT|30}}|[[Varys]] to [[Eddard Stark]]}}
  
  
{{Quote|No one knew the Red Keep better than [[Varys|the eunuch]].{{ref|ASOS|67}}}} [[Jaime Lannister]]
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{{Quote|[[Eddard Stark|Father]] said the Red Keep was smaller than [[Winterfell]], but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with that seemed to shift and change behind her.{{ref|AGOT|32}}|thoughts of [[Arya Stark]]}}
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 +
 
 +
{{quote|The only palace I desire is the red castle at [[King's Landing]], my lord Pyat.{{ref|ACOK|27}}|[[Daenerys Targaryen]] to [[Pyat Pree]]}}
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 +
 
 +
{{quote|[[Blackwater Rush|The river]] that had seemed so narrow from a distance now stretched wide as a sea, but [[King's Landing|the city]] had grown gigantic as well. Glowering down from [[Aegon's High Hill]], the Red Keep commanded the approaches. Its iron-crowned battlements, massive towers, and thick red walls gave it the aspect of a ferocious beast hunched above river and streets. The bluffs on which it crouched were steep and rocky, spotted with lichen and gnarled thorny trees.{{ref|ACOK|58}}|thoughts of [[Davos Seaworth]]}}
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 +
 
 +
{{Quote|No one knew the Red Keep better than [[Varys|the eunuch]].{{ref|ASOS|67}}|thoughts of [[Jaime Lannister]]}}
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 +
 
 +
{{quote|It is my day now. It is my castle and [[Seven Kingdoms|my kingdom]].{{ref|AFFC|12}}|thoughts of [[Cersei Lannister]]}}
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
{{references}}
 
{{references}}
  
[[Category:Red Keep]]  
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[[Category:Red Keep| ]]  
 
[[Category:Castles]]
 
[[Category:Castles]]
[[Category:King's Landing]]
 
 
[[Category:House Targaryen]]
 
[[Category:House Targaryen]]
 
[[Category:House Baratheon]]
 
[[Category:House Baratheon]]
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[[Category:King's Landing]]
  
 
[[es:Fortaleza Roja]]
 
[[es:Fortaleza Roja]]

Revision as of 19:48, 1 August 2018

The Red Keep over King's Landing by Ted Nasmith ©

The Red Keep is a castle on Aegon's Hill in King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. The Red Keep contains the Iron Throne and is the home of King Robert I Baratheon, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.

Layout

See also: Images of the Red Keep
The Iron Throne in the throne room by Marc Simonetti ©

The Red Keep is made of pale red stone[1] and overlooks the mouth of the Blackwater Rush.[2] The Red Keep has seven massive drum-towers crowned with iron ramparts.[1] The castle is smaller than Winterfell[3] and is patrolled by gold cloaks.[4] Much of the Red Keep is connected underground.[5]

Massive curtain walls surround the castle, with nests and crenelations for archers.[1] Thick stone parapets, some four feet high, protect the outer edge of the wall ramparts, where the heads of traitors are traditionally placed on iron spikes between the crenels at the gatehouse.[6] The walls have great bronze gates[7] and portcullises, with narrow postern doors nearby.[1] The castle also has great cornerforts.[8] The immense barbican has a cobbled square in front of it.[9] Behind the walls are small inner yards, vaulted halls, covered bridges, barracks of the City Watch of King's Landing, dungeons, granaries, kennels, and stables.[1][3][10][11]

Relics of the Targaryen dynasty, such as dusty suits of black armor, sit in some corridors.[7] Doors are made of oak banded with black iron.[12] Sweet-smelling rushes can be spread on floors.[13][14] The Red Keep is full of cats, including those kept as pets as well as strays, like a black tomcat.[3]

Great Hall

The Great Hall contains the throne room of the king. The Iron Throne sits on a raised iron dais with high and narrow steps. A long carpet stretches from the throne to the Great Hall's great oak-and-bronze doors. The cavernous Great Hall is cavernous can feast a thousand people.[12] It is oriented north to south, with high, narrow windows on the eastern and western walls. Skulls of the Targaryen dragons once adorned the walls, but King Robert I Baratheon had them moved to a cellar and replaced with hunting tapestries at the beginning of his reign.[15][16] Small council sessions are sometimes held in the throne room.[17]

Maegor's Holdfast

Maegor's Holdfast is a massive square fortress inside the heart of the Red Keep. The castle-within-a-castle is situated behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes. Maegor's Holdfast includes the royal apartments, and the king's bedchamber contains a canopied bed and twin hearths.[4]

Maegor's Holdfast contains the Queen's Ballroom, a hall only half as big as the Small Hall in the Tower of the Hand. The ballroom seats one hundred and has beaten silver mirrors behind the wall sconces which makes the torch's light seem twice as bright. Its walls are paneled with richly carved wood and it has a gallery above the main floor. High arched windows sit along the south wall.[13]

Tower of the Hand

Tower of the Hand by Ryan Barger © Fantasy Flight Games

The Tower of the Hand contains the chambers of the Hand of the King. Its Small Hall is a long room with a high-vaulted ceiling and bench space for two hundred.[12] The private audience chamber is not as large as the king's, but has Myrish rugs, wall hangings, and a golden-tinted round window that give it a sense of intimacy. The Tower of the Hand has a solar and a garderobe,[18] as well as tall windows.[19] Below the tower is the chamber of the dragon mosaic.

Other Buildings

White Sword Tower by Franz Miklis © Fantasy Flight Games

The council chamber hosts meetings of the small council. It contains a long table,[20] at the head of which may sit the king.[21] The chamber is richly furnished with Myrish carpet, a carved screen from the Summer Isles, and tapestries from Lys, Norvos, and Qohor. The chamber's door is flanked by two Valyrian sphinxes.[7] The door can be guarded by a knight of the Kingsguard when the council is in session.[22]

White Sword Tower, located near Blackwater Bay, contains the chambers of the Kingsguard.[23]

The Maidenvault is a long, slate-roofed building located behind the royal sept. Its entry has two tall carved doors.[14] The royal sept inside the Red Keep is located in front of the Maidenvault.[14] There are seven altars, one for each of the aspects of the Faith of the Seven, and crystal windows are placed high in the walls.[13] The castle also has a library.[10]

The Kitchen Keep is located at a courtyard across from the castle's main kitchen. Lord Gyles Rosby has spacious apartments above the Kitchen Keep, including a large bedchamber, a solar, a bath, a dressing room, and small adjoining chambers for servants.[5] The Red Keep also has a small kitchen and a pig yard.[24]

The godswood of the Red Keep is an acre of elm, alder and black cottonwood trees that overlook the Blackwater Rush. The heart tree is a great oak with limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines.[25]

The rookery is the home of the ravens used by maesters of the Citadel. The Grand Maester has his chambers beneath the rookery.[17]

The snug apartments of Lord Varys, the master of whisperers, are three windowless chambers with a hearth near the northern wall. Varys sleeps on a stone bed.[10]

Dungeon

The Traitor's Walk is a pathway[3][26] leading to a squat, half-round tower.[27] The top floor holds cells for prisoners kept in a degree of comfort, such as knights or lordlings who might be ransomed, while the entrance to the dungeons sits on the ground floor. The other floors between contain rooms for the King's Justice, the Chief Gaoler, and the Lord Confessor.[27] The dungeon entrance consists of a door of hammered iron and another door of splintered grey wood.[27]

King Maegor I Targaryen ordered that the dungeons below the squat tower have four levels.[28] The uppermost level has cells with high narrow windows where common criminals are confined together. The second level has smaller, personal cells without windows for highborn captives. Torches in the halls cast light through the bars. The third level cells, the black cells, are smaller still and have doors of wood so that no light enters them,[28] but they have not been used in recent years.[29] The lowest level is used for torture. It is supposedly safer to go through the fourth level of the dungeons in darkness, because there are things one would not wish to see.[28] The dungeon has twisting turnpike stairs and iron gates.[28] A path from the lowest level leads to the chamber of the dragon mosaic below the Tower of the Hand and to the Blackwater Rush.[28]

Secret Passages

Red Keep tunnels by Jonny Klein © Fantasy Flight Games

The Red Keep and Aegon's High Hill have a network of secret passages and tunnels. King Maegor I Targaryen had them built to enable him to make a quick escape should his enemies ever trap him.[10] The tunnels are supposedly full of traps. Some tunnels are of stone, while others are earth supported by timbers. Some of them are so small that a grown man must crawl through them. Some pass close to other rooms in the Red Keep, allowing a hidden person to eavesdrop on conversations.[28]

The bedchamber used by Lord Varys contains a mechanism that causes his stone slab of a bed to float up and reveal a hidden staircase.[10] One secret passage leads from the bedchamber of the Tower of the Hand to the chamber of the dragon mosaic below.[28][30] There is also a secret way to get out of the Red Keep onto the cliffs facing the sea. Narrow handholds, impossible to see from the ground, have been cut into the rock so one may climb down to a trail beside the Blackwater Rush.[7][31] Another passage out of the Red Keep leads to a sewer that empties into the river.[3]

Maegor's Holdfast is the only building in the Red Keep that has no secret passages, as Maegor "wanted no rats in his own walls", except for one escape door that does not connect to any other passage in the Red Keep.[10] Characters familiar with the secret passages include Maegor, Cheese, Lord Larys Strong, Varys and his little birds, and Lord Petyr Baelish.

History

Construction

The Red Keep by Franz Miklis © Fantasy Flight Games

At the start of Aegon's Conquest, Aegon the Conqueror landed at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush. On the highest of the three hills of the area, Aegon's Hill, he built his first fort of earth and wood,[1] the Aegonfort.[32] The new city of King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, developed around the fort. In 35 AC King Aegon I tore down the wooden Aegonfort so a more fitting stone castle could be raised for House Targaryen, tasking his sister, Queen Visenya Targaryen, and the Hand of the King, Lord Alyn Stokeworth, with overseeing its construction.[33][34]

When Aegon died at Dragonstone in 37 AC, he was succeeded by his son, Aenys I Targaryen, who was crowned at Dragonstone according to Gyldayn[34] or in the foundations of the new castle in King's Landing according to Yandel.[35] Aenys was obsessed with the new castle, which the people of King's Landing named the Red Keep because of its stone,[34] but the king passed away at Dragonstone during the Faith Militant uprising in 42 AC. Aenys was succeeded by his brother, Maegor I. The Red Keep and the Sept of Remembrance were seized by Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows, but Maegor eventually used Balerion to destroy the Faith Militant at the sept and solidify his rule.[36]

Maegor took personal charge of the Red Keep's construction in 43 AC. He went beyond the plans of Aegon and Aenys by adding a moated redoubt, later known as Maegor's Holdfast, within the walls of the Red Keep. He also commanded that secret passages, false walls, and trapdoors be introduced to the castle and tunnels through Aegon's High Hill.[34] After Prince Viserys Targaryen was tortured to death by Tyanna of the Tower in 44 AC, King Maegor abandoned his nephew's body in the courtyard of the Red Keep.[36] Many members of House Harroway were thrown onto the spikes below Maegor's Holdfast when the king extinguished the family in 44 AC.[34] When the castle was completed in 45 AC, Maegor threw a feast for its builders, carvers, and stonemasons. After three days of feasting, however, Maegor the Cruel had all of the craftsmen killed so that only he would know the Red Keep's secrets.[1][36] With the Red Keep complete, Maegor then began construction of the Dragonpit. When Maegor the Cruel was found dead on the Iron Throne in 48 AC, one theory suggested that a mason familiar with the castle's secret passages had escaped Maegor's massacre and assassinated the king.[36]

King Jaehaerys I Targaryen chose Septon Barth, who worked in the Red Keep's library, to serve as his Hand of the King.[11] The ashes of Jaehaerys and his queen, Alysanne Targaryen, were interred beneath the Red Keep after their deaths.[37]

Dance of the Dragons

Dragon skulls by Kim Pope © HBO

The Red Keep was a place of song and splendor during the reign of the generous King Viserys I Targaryen,[37] but civil war erupted after his death with the Dance of the Dragons.[38] Many men were imprisoned in the dungeons once Aegon II Targaryen took the throne.[38] Blood and Cheese infiltrated the Red Keep and assassinated Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen to avenge the death of Prince Lucerys Velaryon at Storm's End.

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and her spouse, Prince Daemon Targaryen, landed in the outer ward of the Red Keep during the fall of King's Landing.[38] Aegon's bride, Queen Helaena Targaryen, threw herself to her death from Maegor's Holdfast.[38] Rhaenyra fled the city after the Storming of the Dragonpit, and Ser Perkin the Flea claimed the abandoned Red Keep for Trystane Truefyre.[39] Lord Borros Baratheon recovered King's Landing for Aegon II during the Moon of the Three Kings, but the king was eventually found dead within the Red Keep after the Battle of the Kingsroad.[39]

Lord Cregan Stark administered justice for King Aegon III Targaryen during the Hour of the Wolf in 131 AC.[40] During the regency of Aegon III, the king and his brother, Prince Viserys, were besieged in Maegor's Holdfast for eighteen days by Ser Marston Waters.[40] Ser Lucas Lothston, the master-at-arms of the Red Keep, was granted Harrenhal by Aegon in 151 AC.[41]

Blackfyre Rebellions

King Baelor I Targaryen confined his sisters in the Maidenvault when he came to the throne, claiming it would prevent any carnal thoughts.[14] Maron Martell, Prince of Dorne, submitted to King Daeron II Targaryen before the Iron Throne, after which the pair rode to the Great Sept of Baelor.[42]

Ser Quentyn Ball, the castle's master-at-arms, helped Ser Daemon Blackfyre escape the Red Keep at the start of the First Blackfyre Rebellion.[42] The Raven's Teeth of Lord Brynden Rivers garrisoned the castle during the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen.[43] Daemon II Blackfyre was kept hostage below the castle by Bloodraven after the Second Blackfyre Rebellion.[44] Ser Aegor Rivers was a prisoner in the Red Keep after the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, but Bittersteel eventually escaped to the Free Cities while traveling to the Wall.[44] The murder of Aenys Blackfyre at the Red Keep by order of Brynden Rivers led to Bloodraven being sent to the Wall by King Aegon V Targaryen.[45]

The Mad King

Ser Jaime Lannister and the Red Keep by Jason Engle © Fantasy Flight Games

Lord Tywin Lannister, the Hand of the King to Aerys II Targaryen, desired to have his brother, Ser Tygett Lannister, appointed as master-at-arms of the Red Keep. The growing rift between the king and his Hand led to Ser Willem Darry instead being chosen in 170 AC.[46]

The Mad King remained in the Red Keep for four years after the Defiance of Duskendale,[46] but he unexpectedly left the castle to attend the tourney at Harrenhal.[47][48] His heir, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, chose to reside at Dragonstone instead of the capital.[46] Aerys tasked the Alchemists' Guild with using wildfire to ward off winter in 281 AC, the Year of the False Spring, and green flame burned on the walls of the Red Keep.[49]

After Lyanna Stark was abducted by Rhaegar, her brother, Brandon Stark, rode into the Red Keep to challenge Rhaegar. Aerys had Brandon and his companions arrested, however, and summoned their fathers to court. The king had almost all of them murdered, with Brandon and his father, Lord Rickard Stark, being executed in the throne room.[50] Later during Robert's Rebellion, Rhaegar rode from the Red Keep to confront Lord Robert Baratheon,[51] but the prince was slain by Robert in the Battle of the Trident.[52]

Ser Jaime Lannister, a member of the Mad King's Kingsguard, held the Red Keep amid the Sack of King's Landing. Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch climbed the walls of Maegor's Holdfast and slew Rhaegar's wife, Princess Elia Martell, and children, Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon Targaryen.[53][54] Jaime wanted the king to surrender the castle, but Aerys instead wanted to enact his wildfire plot, with wildfire having been hidden throughout the city, including the castle's cellars. Jaime slew Rossart while the Hand of the King hurried to a postern gate, and then Jaime killed Aerys before the Iron Throne.[55] Willem Darry eventually helped Aerys's surviving children, Prince Viserys and Princess Daenerys, flee Dragonstone before its assault by Stannis Baratheon.[56]

House Baratheon

King Robert I Baratheon claimed the Iron Throne after the death of King Aerys II Targaryen. Ser Aron Santagar serves as master-at-arms of the Red Keep, while Ser Ilyn Payne is the King's Justice.[57] Grand Maester Pycelle handles the castle's ravens.[25] Moon Boy and Orland are Robert's fool and bard, respectively.[58]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Eddard Stark in the council chambers by Joshua Cairós © Fantasy Flight Games

Lady Lysa Arryn abruptly flees the Red Keep in the night after the death of her husband, Lord Jon Arryn.[59] The new Hand of the King, Lord Eddard Stark, and his daughters, Sansa and Arya, take up residence in Jon's former chambers in the Tower of the Hand.[7]

Lost in the dark cellars of the Red Keep, Arya overhears a conversation between two strangers to her, Varys and Illyrio Mopatis.[3][60]

King Robert I Baratheon is taken to his chambers in Maegor's Holdfast after having been mortally wounded by a boar in the kingswood.[4] After Robert dies, Queen Cersei Lannister has Eddard arrested in the throne room for plotting against King Joffrey I Baratheon.[52] Lord Stark is thrown into the dungeon[61] and Sansa is confined to the tallest tower of Maegor's,[20] but Arya escapes the Lannister guards by fleeing into the dungeons.[62]

Robert's hunting tapestries are removed from the throne room's walls.[63] Sansa is eventually granted freedom of the castle by Cersei, although the girl is not allowed to leave the Red Keep.[63] Ser Barristan Selmy, having been dismissed from the Kingsguard,[63] slays two gold cloaks in the stables while attempting to leave the Red Keep.[64][65] Joffrey has the spiked heads of Eddard and other members of his retinue displayed on the castle's walls.[6] Sansa briefly considers pushing Joffrey from the battlements and falling to her death, but she refrains when Sandor Clegane treats her wounded lip.[23]

A Clash of Kings

Tyrion Lannister rallying troops at the Blackwater by zippo514 ©

With the War of the Five Kings having broken out, the tourney on King Joffrey's name day is held in the Red Keep.[66] Tyrion Lannister, the acting Hand, has Vylarr remove the spiked heads.[66] Ser Dontos Hollard meets with Sansa Stark in the castle's godswood to avoid being overheard.[24]

When a mob of smallfolk ask for food outside the castle's gates, King Joffrey I Baratheon has his guards fire upon them.[67] The royal party flees back to the Red Keep during the riot of King's Landing.[9]

During the Battle of the Blackwater, Sansa and other ladies take refuge in the Red Keep's sept and the Queen's Ballroom.[13] Queen Cersei Lannister has Ser Ilyn Payne, the King's Justice, on hand in the ballroom,[13] and she recalls Joffrey to Maegor's Holdfast during the battle.[68] The castle's bells ring to celebrate the defeat of Stannis Baratheon by Lord Tywin Lannister.[68] Afterward, heroes and captives are presented before Joffrey in the throne room.[69]

A Storm of Swords

Varys spying amongst the cobwebs in the Red Keep by Cassandre Bolan © Fantasy Flight Games

Lord Mace Tyrell's court stays in the Maidenvault during their visit to King's Landing.[14] Tyrion Lannister houses Prince Oberyn Martell's retinue from Dorne in a cornerfort away from the Tyrells.[54]

Sansa marries Tyrion Lannister in the Red Keep's sept.[70] Tyrion and Sansa are granted Lord Gyles Rosby's apartments in the Kitchen Keep.[5]

King Joffrey receives wedding gifts in the Queen's Ballroom.[26] Following his wedding to Margaery Tyrell at the Great Sept of Baelor, Joffrey dies at the reception in the throne room.[71] Tyrion is blamed for Joffrey's death and is held in a tower cell.[72] Sansa escapes the Red Keep with the assistance of Joffrey's new fool, Dontos Hollard.[31] It is rumored that a ghostly direwolf prowls the Red Keep after Sansa's disappearance.[73] Ser Jaime Lannister has sex with his sister, Queen Cersei Lannister, in the royal sept, where Joffrey's body has been placed.[73]

Oberyn represents Tyrion in a trial by combat held in the Red Keep's outer ward, but the Red Viper is slain by Ser Gregor Clegane.[74] The night before Tyrion is to be executed, Jaime forces Varys to help his brother escape from the black cells. Varys then guides Tyrion to the chamber of the dragon mosaic. Tyrion climbs a secret passage to the Tower of the Hand, where he kills his father, Lord Tywin Lannister, the Hand of the King.[28]

A Feast for Crows

A servant spying in the Red Keep by Xia Taptara © Fantasy Flight Games

Queen Regent Cersei Lannister becomes paranoid after her father, Lord Tywin Lannister, is found murdered in the Tower of the Hand. The queen fears that her younger brother, Tyrion Lannister, is moving in secret passages, and that the vanished Varys has allied with Stannis Baratheon.[75] Ser Jaime Lannister and guards unsuccessfully search for Tyrion and Varys.[75][51][76] The undergaoler Rugen has also disappeared.[29]

King Tommen I Baratheon weds Margaery Tyrell in a modest ceremony within the sept. After the feast in the Small Hall, Cersei has the Tower of the Hand burned to the ground with wildfire.[76] The queen dreams of building a new royal castle on the other side of the Blackwater Rush.[76] Cersei refuses to allow Ser Loras Tyrell to become the castle's new master-at-arms.[77] The dying Ser Gregor Clegane and enemies of Cersei are sent by the queen to the black cells for experimentation by Qyburn.[29][78]

A Dance with Dragons

Ser Balon Swann informs Prince Doran Martell and his court at Sunspear that Ser Gregor Clegane's dying screams were heard throughout the Red Keep.[79]

With Queen Cersei Lannister having been arrested by the High Sparrow, her uncle, Ser Kevan Lannister, takes up residence in the Red Keep as Lord Regent. Several accusers against Margaery Tyrell are imprisoned in dungeons under the castle.[80] Cersei embarks on a walk of atonement from the Great Sept of Baelor to the Red Keep.[81]

The new Hand of the King, Lord Mace Tyrell, plans to construct a replacement Tower of the Hand triple the size of the original. Kevan and Pycelle are assassinated by Varys and his "little birds" in the Grand Maester's chambers below the rookery.[17]

Quotes

The Red Keep in Game of Thrones

The Red Keep has its secrets, known only to the dead.[34]

—writings of Gyldayn


Aegon the Conqueror had commanded it built. His son Maegor the Cruel had seen it completed. Afterward he had taken the heads of every stonemason, woodworker, and builder who had labored on it. Only the blood of the dragon would ever know the secrets of the fortress the Dragonlords had built, he vowed.[1]

—thoughts of Catelyn Stark


The Red Keep has ways known only to ghosts and spiders.[82]


The Red Keep shelters two sorts of people, Lord Eddard. Those who are loyal to the realm, and those who are loyal only to themselves. [82]


Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with that seemed to shift and change behind her.[3]

—thoughts of Arya Stark


The only palace I desire is the red castle at King's Landing, my lord Pyat.[83]


The river that had seemed so narrow from a distance now stretched wide as a sea, but the city had grown gigantic as well. Glowering down from Aegon's High Hill, the Red Keep commanded the approaches. Its iron-crowned battlements, massive towers, and thick red walls gave it the aspect of a ferocious beast hunched above river and streets. The bluffs on which it crouched were steep and rocky, spotted with lichen and gnarled thorny trees.[2]

—thoughts of Davos Seaworth


No one knew the Red Keep better than the eunuch.[23]

—thoughts of Jaime Lannister


It is my day now. It is my castle and my kingdom.[76]

—thoughts of Cersei Lannister

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 18, Catelyn IV.
  2. 2.0 2.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 58, Davos III.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 32, Arya III.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 47, Eddard XIII.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 58, Tyrion VII.
  6. 6.0 6.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 67, Sansa VI.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 20, Eddard IV.
  8. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 52, Sansa IV.
  9. 9.0 9.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 41, Tyrion IX.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 12, Tyrion II.
  11. 11.0 11.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 54, Davos V.
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 22, Arya II.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 57, Sansa V.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 6, Sansa I.
  15. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 13, Tyrion II.
  16. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 43, Eddard XI.
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 A Dance with Dragons, Epilogue.
  18. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 29, Tyrion VII.
  19. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 39, Eddard X.
  20. 20.0 20.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 51, Sansa IV.
  21. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 19, Tyrion III.
  22. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 17, Cersei IV.
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 67, Jaime VIII.
  24. 24.0 24.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 18, Sansa II.
  25. 25.0 25.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 25, Eddard V.
  26. 26.0 26.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 59, Sansa IV.
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27, Jaime III.
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 28.6 28.7 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 77, Tyrion XI.
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 7, Cersei II.
  30. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 1, Tyrion I.
  31. 31.0 31.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 61, Sansa V.
  32. George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, King's Landing.
  33. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon I.
  34. 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 34.5 The Sons of the Dragon.
  35. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aenys I.
  36. 36.0 36.1 36.2 36.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I.
  37. 37.0 37.1 The Rogue Prince.
  38. 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 The Princess and the Queen.
  39. 39.0 39.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon II.
  40. 40.0 40.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon III.
  41. The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands: House Tully.
  42. 42.0 42.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Daeron II.
  43. The Sworn Sword.
  44. 44.0 44.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys I.
  45. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V.
  46. 46.0 46.1 46.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II.
  47. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42, Daenerys IV.
  48. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, The Kingbreaker.
  49. The World of Ice & Fire, The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring.
  50. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 55, Catelyn VII.
  51. 51.0 51.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 8, Jaime I.
  52. 52.0 52.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I.
  53. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 11, Jaime II.
  54. 54.0 54.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 53, Tyrion VI.
  55. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37, Jaime V.
  56. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 3, Daenerys I.
  57. A Game of Thrones, Appendix.
  58. A Storm of Swords, Appendix.
  59. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 34, Catelyn VI.
  60. So Spake Martin: Sentry Books Signing (Calgary, Canada), November 16, 2000
  61. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 58, Eddard XV.
  62. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 50, Arya IV.
  63. 63.0 63.1 63.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 57, Sansa V.
  64. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 60, Jon VIII.
  65. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 11, Daenerys II.
  66. 66.0 66.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 2, Sansa I.
  67. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 20, Tyrion V.
  68. 68.0 68.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 62, Sansa VII.
  69. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 65, Sansa VIII.
  70. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 28, Sansa III.
  71. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 60, Tyrion VIII.
  72. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 66, Tyrion IX.
  73. 73.0 73.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 62, Jaime VII.
  74. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 70, Tyrion X.
  75. 75.0 75.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 3, Cersei I.
  76. 76.0 76.1 76.2 76.3 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 12, Cersei III.
  77. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 25, Brienne V.
  78. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 32, Cersei VII.
  79. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 38, The Watcher.
  80. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 54, Cersei I.
  81. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 65, Cersei II.
  82. 82.0 82.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 30, Eddard VII.
  83. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 27, Daenerys II.