Euron Greyjoy

Euron was born the second son of Lord Quellon Greyjoy and his second wife, Lady Sunderly; his father already had three sons from an earlier marriage and one more with Sunderly herself. As a boy he dreamed he could fly, and never stopped bringing it up.

He needled his younger brother Victarion without mercy, and left another brother, Aeron, with a fear he still ties to the creak of a rusted iron hinge.

Euron, together with his brothers Balon and Victarion, talked their father into joining Robert's Rebellion, and the ironborn ships struck the Reach as the war was ending. Quellon died at the battle of the Mander, and Balon returned to the Iron Islands as the new lord, his brothers at his side.

That was when Euron devised the plan that made his name: sail to Lannisport and burn the Lannister fleet still riding at anchor there. Victarion, commanding the Iron Fleet, carried it out and sank the western lords' navy.

Once the war ended, Balon banished him from the Iron Islands: Euron had forced himself on Victarion's wife, and his brother would have killed him on the spot if not for the taboo against spilling kin's blood. Euron laughed as they parted. Balon warned him never to return while he still lived.

Since then the Silence has never stopped raiding, crewed entirely by mutes whose tongues Euron had cut out himself. He claims to have sailed as far as Asshai, crossed the Smoking Sea, and seen the ruins of Valyria; he also claims he once owned a dragon egg and threw it into the sea in a fit of temper. He has bastard sons scattered across half the world, and none of them matter enough to him to name.

Word reaches Robb Stark's camp: Balon is dead, and Euron has come back to Pyke to claim the Seastone Chair. Lord Sawane Botley challenges his right to it, and Euron has him drowned in a bucket of seawater. The suddenness of his return is enough to make some wonder whether he had a hand in his brother's death.

Euron claims to have taken a Qarthene galley carrying four warlocks; when one threatens him, he kills the man and feeds him to the other three, who now sail with him as hostages. Below decks he finds a cask of shade of the evening and starts drinking it. By some accounts not everyone trusts, the loot also includes an enormous horn.

Aeron learns his brother returned to Pyke the day after Balon's death, and calls a kingsmoot to challenge his claim. Asha and Lord Rodrik Harlaw also doubt the timing was coincidence, and Sawane Botley's son accuses Euron of buying support with stolen treasure.

At Nagga's Cradle, Euron mocks Victarion, Aeron, and his niece Asha in front of everyone. At the kingsmoot on Old Wyk he sounds the Dragonbinder — he swears he found it among the ruins of Valyria — and promises to conquer all of Westeros for the ironborn with dragons he claims the horn can bind to his will. Despite Aeron's doubts about his faith, the assembly crowns him over Victarion, Asha, and every other claimant.

Asha flees Old Wyk, and Aeron vanishes, vowing to raise the isles against his brother. Euron hands out the plunder he brought from across the known world to his captains, has Lord Baelor Blacktyde killed for refusing to swear to him, and keeps the man's cloak as a trophy; Cragorn, who blew the horn, dies with his lungs burned from the inside.

From there he raids the Reach to sell captives as slaves in Essos. After taking the Shield Islands, he celebrates the victory in Lord Hewett's own castle with Hewett bound beside him; he forces Hewett's daughters and granddaughters to wait on the table, takes his bastard daughter Falia Flowers as a bedmate, and orders the other highborn women to serve his men naked.

He hands out lands and titles to weaken anyone who might rival him, though he can't get the ironborn to sail beyond raiding in search of dragons — Lord Harlaw makes sure they hear every danger of the voyage. Euron then sends Victarion and the Iron Fleet to find Daenerys Targaryen, court her in his name, and bring her and her dragons to Westeros, promising him the Seastone Chair once Euron takes the Iron Throne.

Euron proclaims himself the third of his name, King of the Iron Islands and the North, King of Salt and Rock, Son of the Sea Wind, and Lord Reaper of Pyke. With Asha fled to Deepwood Motte, he decrees she be married to Erik Ironmaker.

He sends Victarion to Meereen with three gifts: Maester Kerwin, a nameless dark-skinned woman, and the Dragonbinder. Victarion remembers that his brother's gifts carry poison, especially after the red priest Moqorro warns him that whoever blows that horn will die. Among the shadows Moqorro sees in the flames, the one that troubles him most is something tall and twisted, one black eye and ten long arms, sailing a sea of blood.