Roose Bolton

Roose is born around 255 AC at the Dreadfort, though even the records disagree on the exact year. He has an unremarkable build, pale skin, and a plain, beardless face remembered chiefly for its strange grey eyes, pale as two winter moons. He speaks rarely and never raises his voice, so that anyone who wants to hear him has to fall silent and lean in; he sips his wine and never loses his composure. His words, "an honest peace, a quiet people," sound like a promise and a warning at once.

As Lord of the Dreadfort he keeps alive, quietly, the abolished custom of a lord's right to a bride's first night, always careful not to draw the Starks' notice. Hunting along the Weeping Water he forces himself on a young miller's wife and hangs her husband for marrying without his leave. When the woman later brings him a baby, Roose recognizes his own pale eyes in the child and spares him: this is Ramsay. He grants the woman the mill, sends her grain and coin every year, and has her brother-in-law's tongue cut out so Lord Rickard Stark never learns what happened.

Years later he fights at the Trident under Lord Eddard Stark, in the war that crowns Robert Baratheon. When a badly wounded Ser Barristan Selmy is brought before the new king, Roose counsels finishing him off; Robert ignores him, spares the knight, and sends his own maester to tend the wounds.

Roose marries a second time, to Bethany Ryswell, sister of Lady Barbrey Ryswell. They have a son, Domeric, who survives, and others who die in infancy. Domeric grows up away from the Dreadfort, serving first as a page to his aunt Barbrey at Barrowton and then as a squire to Lord Horton Redfort at Redfort. Bethany dies of a fever in 298 AC.

A year earlier, in 297, Domeric dies suddenly of a stomach ailment. Roose says nothing publicly, but suspects poison — and suspects his own bastard son. With no living trueborn heir, since Bethany's other children never left the cradle, Roose sends for Ramsay Snow and brings him to the Dreadfort, quietly treating him from then on as his successor.

When Ramsay's mother turns up at the castle asking for a servant to help raise him, Roose sends her a boy who reeks, meaning it as a joke: that is how Reek enters Ramsay's life.

When Robb Stark calls his banners to Winterfell to help his father and his grandfather Hoster Tully, Roose answers the summons and demands command with a bluntness that unsettles Robb himself. At Moat Cailin, Robb decides to split the army: he will march to retake Riverrun while a second force draws Lord Tywin Lannister away. Rather than give that second army to the Greatjon, Robb entrusts it to his more cautious lord, Roose.

At the Twins, Roose warns Robb not to trust the Freys; even so, Robb agrees to a betrothal with one of Lord Walder Frey's daughters in exchange for their help. When the army divides, Roose takes command of the northern foot and part of the Frey horse.

He marches south along the eastern bank of the Trident, strikes at dawn after a full night's march, and is beaten by Tywin at the Battle of the Fords. Even so, Roose manages to pull back, reforming what is left of his troops as he retreats toward Moat Cailin.

Roose marches his army to the Twins, where he marries for a third time — to Walda Frey, one of Lord Walder's granddaughters. Arya Stark learns that he has occupied Ruby Ford. To close off Lord Tywin's options, since Tywin has left Harrenhal hoping to reach Robb in the westerlands, Ser Edmure Tully orders Roose to join Ser Helman Tallhart and take the castle.

Unwilling to wear down his own men, Roose strikes a deal with Vargo Hoat, captain of the Brave Companions: the mercenaries capture a party of northmen under Robett Glover and Ser Aenys Frey, wipe out the small Lannister garrison, and open the gates to Roose's troops. Unknown to Roose, a disguised Arya and Jaqen H'ghar have a hand in that fall of Harrenhal.

Once inside, Roose takes Arya on as his cupbearer, believing her a commoner named Nan. She is present when Roose holds council with the Freys — naked, drained by leeches — and the Freys, emboldened by Stannis's recent defeat at the Blackwater, are already doubting Robb can beat Tywin. Roose orders Darry burned and an attack launched on Duskendale, then rides off to hunt a wolf pack. Arya, who has overheard the Freys speak of some dishonor without knowing what it is, and who fears being left behind with the Brave Companions, steals a map and a dagger and flees the castle.

After the Brave Companions take Jaime Lannister hostage, Vargo Hoat cuts off his sword hand hoping to turn Roose and Tywin against each other. It does not work: Jaime tells Roose he will not hold him to blame for the wound, and when Roose asks him to give his regards to Tywin, Jaime tells him to give them to Robb Stark instead.

Robb needs Roose's help to win the North back from the ironborn, but Roose has already decided the Stark cause is lost and is plotting with Tywin, with Walder Frey, and with his own son to bring them down. He sends a third of his army — none of his own men — to attack Duskendale, knowing the combined Lannister and Tyrell forces will slaughter them there. Marching for the Twins, he drags his feet crossing the Trident and lets Gregor Clegane maul his rearguard.

At the Red Wedding, Roose slips out of the hall with some excuse. The bedding song and "The Rains of Castamere" are the signal. He comes back wearing mail; Robb, already hit by several arrows, watches him approach, and Roose stabs him through the heart. Outside, Frey and Bolton soldiers fall on the northern and riverlands forces and wipe them out. For that betrayal, Lord Tywin names Roose Warden of the North, makes House Bolton the North's ruling house, and has Ramsay legitimized.

Roose marches north from the Twins with two hundred Frey men under Ser Aenys and Ser Hosteen. When Moat Cailin surrenders to Ramsay — with Theon Greyjoy's help — Roose meets his son and is introduced to his future daughter-in-law, an "Arya Stark" who repels him almost as much as Ramsay does; he finds his son crude and without a shred of refinement. Learning that Stannis Baratheon has retaken Deepwood Motte, he decides to hold the wedding at Winterfell to draw Stannis there, bringing his new wife Walda along.

He finds the castle in ruins, little more than a shelter for a couple of dozen people; he promises them mercy if they help rebuild it, and once the work is done he has them hanged rather than flayed — which Theon reads as an almost merciful choice. At the wedding feast, Roose eats nothing Wyman Manderly, who supplied the food, has not already tasted himself.

Being named Warden of the North buys him no firm loyalty: the Dustins and Ryswells, his kin through his mother's line, are the first to swear to him; Hother Umber's faction follows because the Greatjon is a Frey captive; the Cerwyns, Lockes and Manderlys send men to the wedding; and Arnolf Karstark, who declares openly for Stannis, secretly swears to the Boltons. While they wait for Stannis's attack, Bolton men start turning up murdered at night, and suspicion falls on the old Stark loyalists still inside the castle. When word comes that Stannis is three days off, Roose sends the Freys and the Manderlys out by separate roads to meet him.