Ormund Hightower

His first marriage gave him three sons — Lyonel, Martyn, and Garmund — and a daughter, Bethany; the mother did not survive that last birth. Ormund remarried soon after, to Samantha Tarly, barely two years older than Lyonel, his own heir.

Heading House Hightower brought with it the Voice of Oldtown, Lord of the Port and the Beacon, Defender of the Citadel — titles heavier in ceremony than in real command, until war broke out among the sons and grandsons of Viserys I.

When the Reach marched to war under Aegon II's banner, Ormund brought thousands of men and his house's Valyrian steel sword, though he preferred to wait for reinforcements from King's Landing. Not every lord of the Reach followed him gladly. At the Honeywine his forces were boxed in between Thaddeus Rowan and Tom Flowers on one bank and Alan Beesbury, Alan Tarly, and Owen Costayne on the other, and the losses began tipping the fight toward defeat.

That was when his own squire, a boy named Daeron Targaryen, appeared in the sky riding the dragon Tessarion and turned the battle for the greens. When it was over, Ormund knighted him on the spot: Ser Daeron the Daring.

Ormund's army pushed on toward King's Landing, breaking every black force it met, until it reached Ladera. There Lord Roderick Dustin and his Winter Wolves came out to meet them, willing to fight though outnumbered ten to one. Dustin ended up face to face with Ormund; Bryndon Hightower, his cousin, stepped between them and took Dustin's arm off with one stroke of his axe, but the northman managed to kill them both before he fell himself.

Without their commander, the Reach's army lost direction: the Thorns and the Two Traitors fought over who should lead, and Hobert Hightower's attempt to take command amounted to little. After the second battle of Ladera the host broke apart entirely. Lyonel, only fifteen, inherited the Beacon and married Lady Sam, his father's widow.