Brynden Rivers

Brynden was born in King's Landing in 175 AC, the result of King Aegon IV Targaryen's affair with Melissa Blackwood, the sixth of his mistresses. His mother also gave him two sisters, Mya and Gwenys Rivers, and although Aegon eventually set Melissa aside for another mistress, Bethany Bracken, Brynden kept his place at court thanks to the goodwill his mother had earned there.

He had a wine-dark birthmark across his face and throat, and something in his features recalled a bird — hence the nickname that never left him, Bloodraven. He did not get along with his half-brother Aegor Rivers, called Bittersteel: their mothers had competed for Aegon IV's affection, and as grown men the two would also compete for their sister Shiera Seastar. With another brother, Prince Daeron, the relationship was different — close. Aegon IV acknowledged and legitimized both Brynden and Aegor on his deathbed.

Brynden fought with Dark Sister, a Valyrian steel blade, but it was the weirwood longbow he handled best. When Daeron II took the throne, he made him Master of Whisperers on his small council, and around that time Brynden and his sister Shiera became lovers, which only poisoned his relationship with Aegor further. It was said he ruled the realm 'through spies and spells,' and a song was composed about him, A Thousand Eyes, and One.

When the Blackfyre Rebellion broke out, Brynden did not waver: he stood by Daeron II and took command of his archers, the Raven's Teeth. In the war council he argued for harsh punishment of the rebels, against Prince Baelor's calls for mercy, and won out.

He lost an eye to Aegor at the Redgrass Field, but by then his Raven's Teeth had already decided the battle: one of his arrows struck Daemon Blackfyre down from three hundred yards, and his twin sons fell alongside him. The feat earned him an uneasy fame as a killer of his own blood.

When the slaughter was over, Bloodraven and Bittersteel fought each other in single combat. Aegor now wielded his dead father's sword, Blackfyre, and with it he took the eye Brynden had left.

In 209 AC Brynden was named Hand of the King by his nephew Aerys I. That same year the Great Spring Sickness took Daeron II himself, along with the previous Hand, two princes, and tens of thousands of other subjects. Bloodraven ordered the pyromancers to burn the bodies piling up in the streets of King's Landing, and for nights the fires at the Dragonpit could be seen from far off.

The sickness was followed by a drought that emptied the countryside; Brynden ordered the smallfolk back to their lands, and almost no one listened. Many took to the roads as outlaws, and it was said travel through the realm was more dangerous under Aerys I than it had been under his father. Once again, Brynden was called a kinslayer.

In the west, Lord Dagon Greyjoy raided the coast — Fair Isle, the port of Rejo, a village in the Reach. Lord Beron Stark called his men to drive him off the Stony Shore, and the Lannisters began building warships. Brynden, though, kept his attention on Tyrosh, where Bittersteel had taken refuge with the Golden Company. He also let the Brackens and Blackwoods, old enemies, fight their war over Stone Hedge without stepping in.

That same year, 211 AC, a man in service to House Vyrwel and a troupe of dwarf performers brought Brynden word of a fresh plot: Daemon Blackfyre's son, Daemon II, was to be crowned king. Bloodraven moved fast and marched on Whitewalls with three hundred Raven's Teeth, three knights of the Kingsguard, five hundred riders, and five thousand more soldiers gathered from the Crownlands and the Riverlands, with swords from Hayford, Rosby, Stokeworth, and the Blackwoods.

Facing such a force, Daemon II barely managed to pull a handful of tourney guests to his side. He challenged the Hand to single combat; Brynden refused and had him arrested instead. The rebellion fizzled out almost without bloodshed, and Daemon was kept prisoner rather than killed — which also closed off the path for his brother Haegon to become the cause's next claimant.

After the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, Aegor Rivers was taken prisoner, and Brynden asked for his head. King Aerys I chose otherwise, offering him the black of the Night's Watch instead. Bittersteel accepted, but never served the sentence: the ship meant to carry him to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea was boarded along the way, and he escaped back to Essos.

Brynden stayed on as Hand after Aerys I died: his successor, Maekar I, inherited the post in 221 AC. An old High Septon had warned Maekar not to trust a bastard, but the king kept him in office until his own death, in 233 AC.

With the throne empty, Bloodraven called the Great Council in the capital to settle the succession. To Aenys Blackfyre, who wanted to take part peacefully, he offered safe passage to King's Landing; the moment he arrived, though, the gold cloaks seized him and beheaded him at the Red Keep. The Council ended up choosing one of Maekar's sons, who would reign as Aegon V.

The new king's first act was to arrest Brynden over Aenys's death. Bloodraven defended himself by saying he had traded his honor for the good of the realm, but Aegon V would not set him free; he was given a choice between dying and wearing the black of the Night's Watch, and Brynden chose the black.

In 233 AC Brynden sailed for the Wall aboard the Golden Dragon alongside Maester Aemon, escorted by Ser Duncan the Tall and an honor guard of two hundred men, many of them recruits as unwilling as he was; among them were also several of his old Raven's Teeth.

In 239 AC the Night's Watch elected him Lord Commander, and thirteen years later, in 252 AC, he vanished on a ranging beyond the Wall and was never seen again.

Long afterward, Bran Stark discovers, far beyond the Wall, a being living among the Children of the Forest, hidden among the roots of a tree, transformed into the three-eyed raven. It is Brynden Rivers, and he is the last greenseer left.

To Meera Reed, now as the three-eyed raven, he confided: 'I had many names when I was quick, but even I had a mother, and the name she gave me at her breast was Brynden.'