Cregan Karstark

Kinship does not stop the conspiracy: Arnolf and Cregan angle to seize Karhold while Harrion sits a Lannister captive at Maidenpool.

The plan has two parts: the Lannisters are to finish Harrion off, and Cregan is to marry Alys. Karhold would then pass into his hands.

Alys wants no part of that marriage: two buried wives are reason enough to flee for the Wall. There she ends up marrying Sigorn, the Magnar of Thenn.

Cregan rides after her with four armed horsemen, a huntsman, and several hunting dogs. Jon Snow catches up with them on the Kingsroad, just south of Mole's Town -a league off-, before they could turn toward Castle Black under cover of the right of guest, or seek a parley.

Jon locks him in an ice cell and gives him two paths: take the black and be absolved of his crimes, or wait for King Stannis Baratheon's return and die a traitor's death. Cregan refuses the Night's Watch.

Shut in, he howls through the nights and throws frozen filth at whoever brings his food. When the cold finally cracks the cells, he is moved down to the crypt beneath the Lord Commander's Tower, half-ruined as it is.

Past his fiftieth year, Cregan remains a strong man, broad-shouldered, with graying brown hair, a beard, and a mustache.

Over his shoulders he wears a black wool surcoat marked on the chest with the Karstark's white sun, along with leather gloves and a fur-lined cloak.