Edmure Tully

Edmure is born at Riverrun, the third child and only son of Hoster Tully and Minisa Whent; his mother dies while he is still very young, and he grows up alongside his sisters Catelyn and Lysa. As a boy he earns a reputation as quick-tempered but good-hearted, and breaks his arm falling from an elm in the castle's godswood.

He is known for chasing one girl after another, until one of them chooses the singer Tom of Sevenstreams instead, who writes a mocking song about a limp fish; from then on Edmure cannot stand bards. He also nicknames Petyr Baelish "Littlefinger", after the tiny holdings of his house and his short stature, and serves as his squire in the duel Baelish fights against Brandon Stark, something Baelish never forgives him for.

His father turns down an offer from Walder Frey to marry Edmure to one of his daughters, and a possible match with Arianne Martell at Riverrun goes nowhere, since Doran, Prince of Dorne, has already secretly promised the princess to someone else.

As Hoster Tully's health starts to fail, Edmure takes command of the riverlands without even his sister Catelyn being told how serious it is. On learning that Jaime Lannister is massing troops at Casterly Rock, he sends Lords Piper and Vance to hold the mountain pass, and deploys his forces against Gregor Clegane's raids along the border, though Walder Frey is slow to answer the call; for battle he wears bright mail and rippling blue-and-red cloaks, with a silver trout worked into his helm and shield, the sigil of his house.

Edmure wants to strike back at once, but his father insists on first seeking King Robert's leave. After Robert's death and Joffrey's rise to the throne, Edmure is summoned to swear fealty at King's Landing; meanwhile Tywin Lannister scatters his frontier forces, Gregor ambushes Beric Dondarrion, and Jaime crushes Piper and Vance beneath the Golden Tooth before besieging Riverrun, where he takes Edmure prisoner beneath its walls.

With Edmure a captive, his nephew Robb Stark marches south and defeats Jaime at the Whispering Wood and then at the Camps; in that second battle Tytos Blackwood leads a sortie out of Riverrun that frees Edmure, who is wounded in the Neck during the fighting. Once the fighting ends, the lords of the North and the riverlands proclaim Robb King in the North at a council held at Riverrun itself.

Convinced that a red comet foretells victory for Riverrun, Edmure persuades Robb Stark to let the riverlords go home and defend their own lands. When Robb rides west with his cavalry, he leaves Edmure in command of Riverrun and his rearguard; Edmure shelters the terrified smallfolk within the walls as Tywin Lannister burns and pillages the region, straining the castle's stores.

After a raid by Roose Bolton, Edmure orders Helman Tallhart to leave the Twins and help retake Harrenhal, and together with Lords Blackwood and Bracken he hopes to trap Tywin between Riverrun and Harrenhal once Robb returns. He also uncovers and hangs a party of false envoys sent by Tyrion Lannister to free Jaime from captivity, along with the gold cloaks who aided them, and moves the prisoner down to the dungeons.

At Stone Mill, Edmure holds a crossing of the Red Fork against the Lannisters: Gregor Clegane forces his way across at heavy cost, but is thrown back when Edmure commits his reserves. The victory is celebrated at Riverrun, and far away, during the siege of King's Landing, Sansa Stark prays for him among her own.

After his father's death, Edmure inherits the title of Lord of Riverrun, though the loss weighs on him: at the funeral he fails to light the boat with three burning arrows, and it is his uncle Brynden who finally manages it. When Robb returns from the west, he praises Edmure publicly for the victory at Stone Mill, but privately he and Brynden fault him for unknowingly wrecking a plan to trap Tywin Lannister with the cavalry of the North and the Freys; Robb had never told him of it.

After Rickard Karstark murders two prisoners and several guards, Edmure advises Robb to keep him as a hostage, but the king chooses to behead him in the castle's godswood instead. When Robb breaks his pact with the Freys by marrying Jeyne Westerling, Edmure agrees to wed Roslin Frey to make amends, though he is first offended when Walder Frey sends a cripple, Lothar, and a bastard, Walder Rivers, as envoys.

On the road to the Twins, at Bitterbridge Marsh, Edmure takes part in Robb's plans to besiege Moat Cailin. Arriving as a wedding guest, he fears Walder Frey will hand him some plain or foolish bride out of spite, but Roslin turns out to be a beautiful girl; even so, she weeps before and during the feast behind a forced smile. Edmure and Roslin withdraw to consummate the marriage according to the bedding custom, he distracted by the fiddlers and by his new wife.

Meanwhile the Freys and Boltons turn on the guests left in the hall: it is the Red Wedding, in which his sister Catelyn and his nephew, King Robb, are killed. Edmure is taken prisoner by his own new father-in-law, Walder Frey; his friend Marq Piper is held captive at Riverrun, and after Joffrey's death, the new king Tommen outlaws Edmure and Brynden, while the castle is granted to Emmon Frey once Brynden surrenders it.

As a prisoner, Edmure is brought by Ryman Frey to the siege of Riverrun, where his uncle Brynden holds out as castellan. Every day he is hoisted onto the gallows in sight of the castle to pressure Brynden, who will not yield, while Ryman never carries out the threat; the siege stalls until the Crown sends Jaime Lannister to take command.

In the camp, Genna Lannister and Emmon Frey, the new Lord of Riverrun, see Edmure and the child Roslin is carrying as a threat to their hold on the castle. Jaime negotiates with Brynden to trade Edmure for the Westerlings held at Riverrun, but Brynden refuses, saying that whether Edmure is doomed or not, he does not care if the besiegers kill him. Jaime then takes Edmure into his own custody and orders the hanging rope cut.

Jaime offers him a bargain: if he yields Riverrun, the garrison and the smallfolk will be spared, Brynden may join the Night's Watch, and Edmure himself will live comfortably as a hostage at Casterly Rock with Roslin and their child; if he refuses, Jaime threatens to throw the riverlords into the first assault and to kill Roslin's baby. Edmure surrenders the castle, though not before letting Brynden slip out through the Water Gate without Jaime knowing until the next day; Riverrun passes to Emmon Frey and Edmure sets out west as a Lannister hostage. "You will never know how it sickens me to see you in this room, Kingslayer. You will never know how much I despise you," he had told Jaime, in his father's old chambers.

Now a hostage of House Lannister, Edmure remains alive in the westerlands; Jaime mentions to Tytos Blackwood that once Roslin gives birth, mother and child will be sent to Casterly Rock to join him.