Cregan Stark

Cregan was born in 108 AC, the eldest son of Lord Rickon Stark and Lady Gilliane Glover; he had a younger brother who barely appears in the records. His father's death in 121 AC left him at the head of Winterfell at just thirteen, so real power passed to his uncle Bennard Stark, named regent while the boy grew up.

The regency was meant to end in 124 AC, when Cregan turned sixteen, but Bennard was slow to hand over control. Two years of friction ended in open rupture in 126 AC: Cregan had his uncle and his uncle's three sons locked up, and took the North's rule into his own hands without further regencies.

Soon after he married Arra Norrey, a companion since childhood. The marriage lasted barely two years: Arra died in 128 AC giving birth to Rickon, the son Cregan named after his own father.

Those who knew him described a stern, cold-eyed man; septon Eustace claimed his eyes recalled a winter storm. Like most Starks, he kept close ties to the Night's Watch.

When Viserys I Targaryen died, prince Jacaerys Velaryon flew across the realm on Vermax to win the North for his mother, Queen Rhaenyra. In Winterfell he met a Cregan who, according to Maester Munkun, reminded him of the brother he had lost; the two spent days hunting, drinking and training together, until they swore an oath of brotherhood. Septon Eustace tells a different story, of a prince set on winning Lord Stark over to the Faith of the Seven, and the jester Mushroom adds a darker third version: that Jacaerys dishonored Sara Snow, Cregan's bastard half-sister, and that only a secret wedding in the godswood calmed the lord of Winterfell's fury. Even Archmaester Gyldayn, who collected all three accounts, would not vouch for that last one.

Whatever the truth of those weeks, they produced a political deal: whatever daughter Jacaerys might one day father would marry Rickon, Cregan's son. Munkun named the arrangement the Pact of Ice and Fire. In exchange, Cregan put the whole North behind the Blacks, and the Winter Wolves, fearing a long, hard winter, began gathering under arms.

The alliance came too late to save the prince: Jacaerys died in the Battle of the Gullet, and soon after Rhaenyra had to flee King's Landing following the Storming of the Dragonpit. Sheltering in Duskendale, in 130 AC she received word from Winterfell: Cregan was promising ten thousand northmen, but the march could not begin until after the last harvest, with winter already closing in.

By the time Lord Stark had gathered his forces, the war had changed hands: Aegon II had returned to King's Landing and sat the throne once more. Cregan kept his word all the same, and in 131 AC marched south at the head of a second northern army, though the cause he had sworn to fight for no longer had anyone left to lead it.

When the North's second army reached King's Landing in 131 AC, it far outnumbered the riverlands forces that were supposed to be its allies, and even the old men of the Greens felt intimidated just watching it march past. Cregan had planned to bring Storm's End, Oldtown and Casterly Rock to heel for having backed Aegon II, but Lord Corlys Velaryon had beaten him to it, already sending envoys to negotiate peace with those same castles.

Waiting to learn whether that negotiation had succeeded or failed, Lord Stark took command of the court for six days, in what later became known as the Hour of the Wolf. He showed no mercy: he had twenty-two men arrested in King Aegon III's name, among them Lord Larys Strong and Corlys Velaryon himself. He agreed, grudgingly, not to march on the Green castles, but demanded an inquiry into Aegon II's poisoning. The king, only eleven years old, gave way and named him Hand of the King.

Before accepting the post, he warned the boy king plainly: "This city is a nest of vipers. There are liars, turncloaks and poisoners in this court who would kill you as quickly as they killed your uncle to secure power."

The bargain cost both sides something: Cregan backed Corlys Velaryon's pardon, and in exchange Lady Alysanne Blackwood agreed to marry the now-widowed lord of Winterfell. That marriage gave him four daughters. When Alysanne died, Cregan married again, this time to Lynara Stark, who gave him five more children.

As Hand of the King, Cregan sat at the foot of the Iron Throne to oversee the inquiry into Aegon II's death, a process that came to be called the Trial of the Wolf. Nearly every man accused chose to take the black and march to the Wall rather than stand trial. Only two chose death: Ser Gyles Belgrave of the Kingsguard, and Larys Clubfoot, the last of House Strong.

Cregan did not delegate the executions: he beheaded both men himself with Ice, his house's Valyrian steel sword. The day after, he resigned as Hand and rode back to Winterfell, leaving behind many of the northmen who had marched south with him; a good number of them stayed in the riverlands, finding wives at the Widow's Fairs or taking service as guards and soldiers.

"The snows are falling in the North," he is said to have told the court, "and my place is at Winterfell."

After Queen Jaehaera Targaryen died in 133 AC, Cregan opposed the idea of young Aegon III marrying Myrielle Peake, daughter of Lord Unwin Peake. The king rewarded him many times over the years, though no Targaryen princess ever married into House Stark. In Winterfell, Maester Kennet served Cregan through much of that long rule.

His skill with a sword was proven in a tourney against prince Aemon the Dragonknight, who later said he had never faced a better swordsman. The years went by and Cregan earned the name by which he is remembered, the Old Man of the North: he lived long enough to outlive his own heir, Rickon, who died at Sunspear during King Daeron I's conquest of Dorne.

Rickon left only two daughters, and the elder, Serena, stood as heir to the lordship. But when Cregan died, Winterfell did not pass to her: it went to his second son, Jonnel Stark. Cregan was buried in the crypts of Winterfell, beside the lords who had come before him.