Paxter Redwyne

When House Tyrell chose to hold for the Targaryens against Robert Baratheon's rebellion, Paxter followed Mace Tyrell without wavering. The Arbor's fleet sealed the bay off Storm's End and let nothing through for a full year, while inside the castle Stannis Baratheon's garrison went hungry. Outside the walls, Paxter and Mace ate and drank in plain sight of the besieged.

The blockade nearly worked. One smuggler broke it: Davos Seaworth slipped onions and salt fish past the Arbor's ships. By the time the Targaryens fell at the Trident and King's Landing was sacked, the siege no longer meant anything — Eddard Stark arrived to lift it, and Paxter bent the knee to the new king, Robert Baratheon.

Years later, when the ironborn rose against the Iron Throne, the Arbor's warships didn't stay home. They sailed with the fleet led by Stannis Baratheon, now his brother's admiral, and fought off Fair Isle.

When Samwell Tarly was ten, his father brought him to the Arbor on one of Paxter's ships, meaning to leave him there as a page and, later, squire to Lord Redwyne. Paxter's twin sons, Horas and Hobber, made sure the boy didn't last a season — they bullied him until Randyll Tarly took him back to Horn Hill. The Redwynes may never have known what they lost: if Sam had pleased his hosts, he would have ended up betrothed to Desmera.

The other name that has come up for Desmera is Daven Lannister. His father, Ser Stafford Lannister, has been sounding out Paxter about the match for some time, without reaching an agreement.

With both his sons held hostage in King's Landing on Queen Cersei's orders, Paxter was the only Tyrell bannerman who didn't declare for Renly Baratheon when he claimed the crown. The reason needed no explaining: Renly shared blood with Stannis, and Stannis was the man who had spent a year starving his way through the siege of Storm's End.

After Renly's death, someone at court — Littlefinger — suggested sending one of the twins back to Paxter as a goodwill gesture. When Mace Tyrell threw the Reach's weight behind the Lannisters, Paxter brought his fleet to the Blackwater and helped tear Stannis's army apart outside King's Landing.

Paxter took a seat on young King Joffrey's small council. At Tyrion Lannister's wedding to Sansa Stark he danced with Queen Cersei; at Joffrey's own wedding he gave the king a model of a ship being built at the Arbor, one that would carry his name — the Joffrey's Valor.

When Joffrey died poisoned at his own feast, Paxter was among those called to testify at Tyrion's trial. He told the court what he'd heard: the dwarf threatening the king to his face.

Paxter attended the wedding of King Tommen and Margaery Tyrell, and soon after Queen Cersei sent him to besiege Dragonstone, Stannis Baratheon's last stronghold in the south. He was in no hurry — he'd rather starve the defenders out or mine under the walls than lose men to an assault.

Cersei had no such patience. She sent Ser Loras Tyrell of the Kingsguard to storm the castle outright, hoping to free the Arbor's fleet to fight the ironborn in the Reach.

When the Faith of the Seven arrested Queen Cersei, Ser Kevan Lannister, the new Lord Regent, gave Paxter a permanent seat on the small council and the title of Grand Admiral. The appointment didn't move him an inch — he stayed put outside Dragonstone.