Gerold Hightower

No record survives of when he first took the white cloak. His rise to command came around the year 259, when the death of Duncan the Tall left the post empty. Soon after, the fall in battle of Ormund Baratheon, Hand of the King during the war against the Ninepenny Kings, put him at the head of the crown's forces. Once that campaign ended, it was Gerold who welcomed a young Barristan Selmy as a new sworn brother.

In 281, an outlaw of the Kingswood Brotherhood put an arrow through his hand. Unable to serve while he healed, he handed command over for a time to Arthur Dayne, who went on to hunt down the band's leader and break up the rest of his men.

He was present when Aerys burned Rickard Stark alive before the assembled court, in the Throne Room at King's Landing. To Jaime Lannister, newly sworn into the Kingsguard, he made clear what the vow actually meant: their oaths bound them to protect the king, not to sit in judgment of him.

A month into the war sparked by Lyanna Stark's disappearance, Aerys sent Gerold to find Rhaegar and bring him back to the capital. Instead, he stayed with two brothers of the order guarding Lyanna herself in a tower in Dorne's Red Mountains, following orders the prince had left behind.

All trace of him vanished for the months between the clash at the Trident and the fall of the capital, and he was not found again until Eddard Stark arrived with his companions. Gerold refused to kneel, fought, and died on the spot. Eddard raised eight cairns there from the tower's own stones, and his body was laid beneath one of them.