Cressen

Cressen served for years as maester of Storm's End. When Lord Steffon Baratheon and his wife died in a shipwreck, the raising of their three children fell to him. Stannis, the middle of the brothers, was always his favorite: he lacked the natural charm of Robert and Renly, and that made him need the old maester more, so much that Cressen came to love him as his own. During the siege of the castle, when some men tried to open the gates to the besiegers, Stannis wanted to catapult the traitors out against the enemy; Cressen talked him out of it, since the prisoners might yet be needed as food before the siege was over.

When Robert granted Stannis the lordship of Dragonstone, Cressen went with him, an unusual thing for a maester: his oath bound him to the castle, not to whoever ruled it. He was also thought to have worked earlier alongside Archmaester Walgrave. Already old, and shortly before war broke out over the Iron Throne, Stannis asked the Citadel to send a replacement; Pylos was the one who came.

When Stannis proclaimed himself king, his messengers found little support. Cressen urged him to seek an alliance with the Starks and the Arryns, but Stannis refused, arguing that Robb Stark had already risen in rebellion. Meanwhile Queen Selyse pressed her husband to abandon the Faith of the Seven for that of R'hllor, repeating that Melisandre had foreseen Renly's imminent death. Cressen suspected it was Selyse herself who had put the idea of killing his brother into Stannis's head, and was left speechless to see the king heed it. Convinced the red priestess was to blame, he resolved to be rid of her.

At a dinner he poured poison into Melisandre's cup. She seemed to guess as much and suggested he throw the wine away; Cressen refused and dared her to drink alongside him. The priestess drank half the cup first, unharmed by the poison; the maester drank the rest and died choking, at Dragonstone.