Hobert Hightower

Ser Hobert fought on the green side during the Dance of the Dragons, the civil war that split House Targaryen. He was a cousin of Lord Ormund Hightower, and while Ormund carried the weight of command over the Reach's host, Hobert was entrusted with a lesser task: the baggage train. He was described as a stout, slow-moving man.

Ormund's death changed everything. As the highest-ranking Hightower still alive, command of the army fell to him, even though until then he had led nothing more than wagons and supplies. Prince Daeron Targaryen ordered him to put a stop to the sack of Hearth's Home, and Hobert failed utterly.

During the many months the Reach's troops remained camped in the town, Hobert argued they should return home to resupply, a position that never won out.

When news of riots in King's Landing reached the camp, Hobert opposed the lords who wanted to march on the capital and urged caution instead. Together with Lord Unwin Peake, he summoned eleven other lords to the inn known as the Bloody Briars to decide what to do with two dragonriders who had betrayed the greens.

The group, who came to be known as the Briars, agreed that both traitors should die, and Prince Daeron gave his approval. Before they could act, the Second Battle of Hearth's Home broke out, in which one of the two, Hugh Hammer, was killed.

Hobert survived the battle, as did Ulf the White, the other traitor. Seeing himself as the last living dragonrider, Ulf resolved to attack King's Landing and claim the Iron Throne for himself. Hobert summoned him under the pretense of planning that attack, but had secretly poisoned the Dornish red Ulf favored.

Hobert's nervousness gave something away, and Ulf, suspicious, asked him to drink alongside him, though from the sweet wine instead. Hobert did so rather than break the pact sealed with the Briars, and both men died shortly after. As the fool Mushroom put it: "No man ever feared ser Hobert's sword, but his cup of wine proved deadlier than Valyrian steel."