Jeyne Poole

Jeyne grows up within the walls of Winterfell as the daughter of Vayon Poole, the man who keeps the castle's accounts and order. Her closeness to Eddard and Catelyn Stark's children makes her more than just a servant's daughter: she becomes Sansa Stark's constant companion, the friend she shares games and secrets with.

That friendship has a harsher side too. Jeyne often mocks Arya Stark, her friend's younger sister, a habit that follows her well into her teenage years.

When Lord Eddard Stark is named Hand of the King, she travels with her father to the capital. There, during a sewing class with Princess Myrcella, she lets slip a remark that lights the fuse between the two Stark sisters: she says Joffrey can't take his eyes off Sansa, and that is enough to set Arya off.

At the Tourney of the Hand, Jeyne spots Lord Beric Dondarrion among the knights and declares, thrilled, that she will marry him. Shortly after, she witnesses a young knight's death in the lists and has to be led away by Septa Mordane to recover.

The fall of House Stark in King's Landing sweeps away much of its household, and Jeyne is among those who survive the slaughter. Her father is not so fortunate: he dies in it.

Jeyne is accused of treason and arrested. Ser Boros Blount of the Kingsguard shuts her in a room together with Sansa Stark. Not long after, someone else decides her fate: she ends up in Petyr Baelish's hands.

Some time later, Ser Jaime Lannister crosses paths with a northern girl claiming to be Arya Stark, without recognizing her. He later tells Brienne it cannot really be her: with almost all of Arya's family dead and only Sansa and her bastard brother alive, on the Wall, no one is in a position to expose the impostor. According to Jaime, in the North, House Bolton knows perfectly well the girl is a fraud.

That girl is Jeyne, sent to Winterfell to marry Ramsay Bolton, the move Lord Roose Bolton uses to strengthen his claim on the castle. In King's Landing, Queen Cersei Lannister tells the scheme her own way: she says Petyr Baelish found a plain "steward's pup" and dressed her up as Arya Stark to send her north.

Jeyne is forced to marry Ramsay Bolton. Before the ceremony she begs Theon Greyjoy more than once to help her escape, without success. On the wedding night, when Theon undresses her, he finds her back covered in scars, as though she had been whipped; Ramsay asks, once in bed, whether she knows how to please a man, and she answers that she has been trained for it.

From then on she lives shut away in a tower, and what Ramsay does to her leaves her deeply marked. Those who bathe her see the bruises on her body, and her crying can be heard across Winterfell. To Lady Barbrey Ryswell, that weeping does more damage to the Boltons' cause than Stannis Baratheon's own army: the Freys don't care, but among the old northern houses once loyal to the Starks, loyalty starts to crack a little more every time "Arya Stark" is heard crying.

Under the name Abel, Mance Rayder reaches Winterfell with six free folk women disguised as maids, set on getting Jeyne out of the castle. Together they help her and Theon Greyjoy break free, but no one else shares their luck: Mance and his women are captured. The women are flayed; he is left in a cage out in the open, with his companions' skins his only shelter from the cold.

Once outside the walls, Jeyne and Theon are found by Mors Umber, who takes them to Stannis Baratheon's camp. In the flight, the cold has blackened the tip of her nose.