Barristan Selmy

Born in 237, Barristan was the eldest son of Ser Lyonel Selmy, knight of Harvest Hall, and served as squire to Lord Manfred Swann. At ten years old, without anyone knowing who he was, he put on a suit of armor and rode as a mystery knight at the tourney of Blackhaven; while others mocked so young a challenger, Prince Duncan Targaryen agreed to joust with him and later gave him the name he would carry: Barristan the Bold.

At sixteen, King Aegon V knighted him after he defeated both Prince Duncan and Ser Duncan, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, in a tourney at King's Landing. He built a reputation in battles and tourneys alike, and during the War of the Ninepenny Kings he killed Maelys the Monstrous, the last Blackfyre, ending that rebel branch of the royal family and its claim to the throne.

At twenty-three he joined the Kingsguard and swore his vows before Ser Gerold Hightower, in the reign of Jaehaerys II Targaryen. Taking the white cloak meant giving up his family's lands and title, and the woman he had been promised to married a cousin of his instead.

In 277 AC, King Aerys II had been held prisoner in Duskendale for half a year. Lord Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King, was preparing to storm the town, but Ser Barristan offered to attempt a rescue on his own; Tywin gave him a single day.

Disguised as a beggar, he climbed the walls by night, made his way through the castle and killed one sentry after another before the alarm could be raised, until he reached the dungeons and freed the king. In the escape he killed two guards and Ser Symon Hollard, avenging his sworn brother Ser Gwayne Gaunt, and got away with Aerys on a pair of stolen horses; an arrow struck him in the chest along the way.

Once the siege of Duskendale was over, Barristan asked the king to spare the life of the boy Dontos Hollard before his house and the Darklyns were put to the sword, and Aerys agreed.

In the last years of Aerys II's reign, the outlaw band known as the Kingswood Brotherhood caused havoc, and the king sent the Kingsguard to hunt them down. Barristan fought in that campaign, rescued Lady Jeyne Swann and her septa, and killed the Brotherhood's leader, Ser Simon Toyne, in single combat.

He also won the final tilt of the tourney at Storm's End, unhorsing Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. At the Tourney of Harrenhal, where the whole Kingsguard was present, he fell quietly in love with Lady Ashara Dayne and meant to name her Queen of Love and Beauty if he won, but it was Rhaegar himself who unhorsed him. The crown Rhaegar later laid in Lyanna Stark's lap would light the fuse for the war to come.

When the War of the Usurper broke out, after Lord Jon Connington's defeat at the Battle of the Bells, Barristan and Ser Jonothor Darry were sent to bring what was left of his forces back to safety. He fought for Rhaegar Targaryen at the Battle of the Trident and was badly wounded; Robert Baratheon, now king, pardoned him and named him Lord Commander of his Kingsguard.

Selmy never stopped having doubts about serving the man who had overthrown the Targaryens: he had not been present when Tywin Lannister delivered Rhaegar's children's bodies to Robert, and he believed that had he seen Robert smile at the sight, no army could have stopped him from trying to kill him. Even so, he stayed loyal to the new king. He also never approved of Jaime Lannister wearing the white cloak, and when he learned Jaime had killed King Aerys II, he said Jaime's cloak should have been changed for a black one.

He led the assault on Old Wyk during the Greyjoy Rebellion. Well past his youth, he remained a dangerous fighter: he won a tourney at King's Landing at fifty-seven, and a year before the War of the Five Kings began, he unhorsed Sandor Clegane at Prince Joffrey's name-day tourney.

When the Small Council sent an escort to bring King Robert back from Winterfell, Barristan rode with it alongside Renly Baratheon and Ilyn Payne, the King's Justice. At the Tourney of the Hand he lost only to Jaime Lannister, and only after three passes, having already unhorsed men many years younger than him. When Ser Hugh of the Vale died in the lists at Ser Gregor Clegane's hands, Barristan kept vigil over the young knight's body himself, since he had no one else to do it.

As Lord Commander, he was present at the council where Robert ordered the killing of Daenerys Targaryen, pregnant and far away in Essos; only he and Eddard Stark spoke against it. He also went with the king on the hunt that would cost Robert his life.

The new king, Joffrey, dismissed him and expelled him from the Kingsguard in an unprecedented move, putting Sandor Clegane in his place and naming Jaime Lannister Lord Commander. Barristan threw down his sword in the throne room and walked out; Joffrey, hearing a threat in his words, ordered him seized. Selmy went to the White Sword Tower to record his own dismissal in the White Book. When Janos Slynt sent gold cloaks to arrest him as he left the Red Keep, he killed them without so much as a sword in hand, and got away.

He chose not to go home to Harvest Hall, not wanting to bring Joffrey's disgrace down on his family. He sold his horse, dressed as a commoner, and made his way back into King's Landing pretending to be fleeing the war; he grew a long white beard, and among the crowd he watched Eddard Stark's execution outside the Great Sept of Baelor. Afterward he went to the sept to pray for Eddard's soul and give thanks that he himself had only been dismissed. Looking back on his years serving Robert, he decided the man had been a good knight but a poor king, and resolved to find his true king and die in his service.

Convinced his true king was Viserys Targaryen, he crossed the Narrow Sea to Pentos. There, the magister Illyrio Mopatis told him Viserys had died at Vaes Dothrak, and sent him, disguised as the elderly Arstan Whitebeard, together with the huge eunuch Belwas, to find Queen Daenerys Targaryen in Qarth and bring her back to Pentos.

In the port of Qarth, while Daenerys and Ser Jorah Mormont were trying to find passage on a ship, a Sorrowful Man tried to kill her with a manticore hidden in a box; Barristan snatched it from her hands and killed him. Presenting himself as Arstan, he and Belwas told Daenerys that Illyrio had sent them to serve her, since Westeros now had four kings and no justice at all.

He kept up the disguise for a while, watching to see whether Daenerys had inherited her father Aerys's madness, and taught her about Westerosi history and customs. He disagreed when she, on Jorah's advice, went to Astapor to buy Unsullied, and was disgusted to learn how they were trained, though the trick Dany used to free the slaves impressed him.

After the sack of Astapor and the defeat of the Yunkai'i army, Barristan saved Dany when Mero, former captain of the Second Sons, attacked her outside Meereen. She wanted to knight him in reward, but he refused and confessed who he really was, also revealing that Jorah Mormont had long been sending word of her movements back to King's Landing. Dany sent him and Jorah through Meereen's sewers to free slaves, a dangerous mission meant as both punishment and a chance at redemption; once the city fell, she pardoned them both and named Barristan Lord Commander of her Queensguard.

As Lord Commander of the Queensguard, Barristan became one of her most trusted advisers. He pressed her that conquering Westeros would take knights as well as Unsullied, and set about training a group of young squires loyal to the queen; the training proved so hard that more than half of them dropped out, leaving only the most capable.

When Daenerys vanished and Aggo and Rakharo's Dothraki rode out into the grass sea looking for their khaleesi, Barristan was left with little more than the girl Missandei for company. Hizdahr zo Loraq, the queen's husband, used the chance to replace those still loyal to Daenerys with his own men, and Barristan, with Missandei's help, tried until the last moment to stop his plan to hand Meereen over to the slavers and kill the dragons.

Skahaz mo Kandaq convinced him that Hizdahr had tried to murder the queen and that they had to stop him; Barristan, by then removed from his post, joined Skahaz and Grey Worm in the plot that drove Hizdahr from the throne. With the queen gone, he presided over the council that ran Meereen in her place, as her Hand.

In the middle of it all, Prince Quentyn Martell tried to steal the dragons and died burned by Rhaegal and Viserion, who escaped and took up residence in the city's pyramids. Barristan went to speak with Archibald Yronwood and Gerris Drinkwater, the prince's two friends, and promised to help them get back to Dorne if they first slipped into the Yunkish camp and freed the three hostages: Jhogo, Daario Naharis, and the Unsullied captain. He longed for Daenerys's return, but in the meantime prepared for war against Yunkai.