Sandor Clegane

Sandor was born in 271 AC, the younger son of House Clegane and Gregor's little brother, five years his junior. The gap in strength between them shaped his whole childhood. At seven he stole a toy from Gregor, and when Gregor found out, he shoved Sandor's face into a lit brazier; their father covered it up by claiming the boy's bed had caught fire.

The burn left him scarred across half his face and down his neck, and a horror of fire he has never shaken. Unconfirmed rumors also circulate about a sister who died young under strange circumstances, and about their father's death in a hunting accident that struck some as too convenient.

He joined House Lannister's forces the same day Gregor inherited the family's lordship, and later claimed he killed a man at twelve, probably during Robert's Rebellion. He has never wanted to swear a knight's vows. In 297 AC, Ser Barristan Selmy unhorsed him in a tourney.

He is a tall, powerfully built man. On the unburned side of his face he has a sharp cheekbone, a grey eye under a heavy brow, and thin dark hair combed over to hide the other side, where nothing grows anymore. On the burned side only a hole remains where his ear used to be, the skin around the eye a mass of scar tissue, and a piece of jawbone visible through the lost flesh. He speaks in a rasping voice, and the burned corner of his mouth twists when he talks.

Cynical and short-tempered, he despises anything resembling chivalry, though he is an obedient man fond of dogs. He often mocks Tyrion Lannister's height. He fears fire, but can light a torch or a campfire with his own hands when he has to.

He wears an olive-green cloak over plain, dark armor, and rides a heavy courser named Stranger. His dog-headed helm is as much a part of him as his own face. He fights with a longsword, a war hammer, and a dagger, and can wield an axe as well.

As Joffrey Baratheon's sworn shield, Sandor travels with the royal party from Winterfell to King's Landing. Along the way he carries out an order that makes Arya Stark his enemy for good: killing Mycah, a butcher's son accused of hurting the prince.

On the first night of the Tourney of the Hand, drunk, he opens up to Sansa Stark; when she avoids looking at his ruined face, he mocks her fine manners and starts calling her "little bird." During the tourney itself he fights his own brother Gregor to stop him from killing Ser Loras Tyrell, who names him champion in gratitude.

When Eddard Stark tries to seize Cersei Lannister and her children and the plan backfires, Sandor takes part in the slaughter that follows and personally kills Cayn, one of Ned's northern men. After Ser Barristan Selmy is dismissed, Sandor fills his empty seat on the Kingsguard, though he refuses to be knighted, and is often set to watch over Sansa.

At the tourney held for Joffrey's name day, Sandor guards the king and makes no secret of his contempt for the competitors, whom he calls gnats. Not long after, drunk, he runs into Sansa near the godswood and asks her to sing him a song about knights and maidens, mocking her romantic idea of chivalry.

After the battle at the Fords, it's Sandor who brings Sansa before Joffrey, who blames her for her brother's treasons. When the king orders her beaten, Sandor refuses to strike her, and when Tyrion Lannister cuts the punishment short, it's Sandor who covers her with his own cloak. Soon after, he pulls her out of a mob that could have killed her during riots in the city.

At the Battle of the Blackwater he fights alongside the city's defenders until Tyrion's wildfire drives him to desert, overwhelmed by his terror of flame. Before fleeing he stops by Sansa's chambers, drunk, offers to get her out of the capital, and settles for having her sing to him instead.

The Mad Huntsman captures Sandor and takes him to Stoney Sept, in the Riverlands, where he ends up in the hands of the Brotherhood without Banners, who are also holding Arya Stark prisoner. There he is accused of crimes committed by Lannister soldiers, and although there isn't enough evidence to convict him, Arya's testimony about Mycah's death weighs against him.

Lord Beric Dondarrion decides to settle it with a trial by combat. As a follower of R'hllor, Beric fights with a flaming sword, and though Sandor's shield catches fire and burns his arm, Beric defeats him despite his terror of flame.

The Brotherhood strips him of nearly everything he is carrying, including what was left of his tourney winnings, but lets him go with his armor and his horse. Some call for his execution; Beric answers that R'hllor must have a purpose for him.

Trying to take his gold back by force, Sandor runs into Arya again and decides to take her with him for ransom. They head for the Twins, arriving right in the middle of the Red Wedding; there he kills Tytos Frey and Garse Goodbrook before fleeing with the girl.

They plan to ransom her to Lysa Tully in the Vale, but can't get through on the High Road and end up staying for a while in a village at the foot of the mountains, until they are driven out. Sandor then decides to take Arya to her great-uncle, Ser Brynden Tully, at Riverrun, by then under siege by House Frey.

Taking shelter at the Inn at the Crossroads, they run into two of Ser Gregor's men and his squire. In the fight that follows, Sandor kills Polliver while Arya finishes off the Tickler, who had him cornered. Sandor comes out badly wounded, in the thigh, the ribs, the neck, and the face.

Arya bandages his wounds, but they fester on the road to Saltpans. When she strikes his name from her list of people she wants dead, she wavers between that and refusing the mercy killing he begs for; in the end she leaves him under a tree without granting it.

After Arya leaves him, conflicting stories spread about what became of him: that he joined the Brotherhood, that he built his own band of outlaws, that he sacked and burned Saltpans, and that he raped a twelve-year-old girl there.

The true story comes out much later, told by the Elder Brother of Quiet Isle: he found Sandor dying, tried and failed to heal him, and buried him, leaving his helm on the grave as a marker. Someone later stole it; that same helm turns up on the head of one of the men who sack Saltpans, who turns out to be Rorge, the one who dug it up from Sandor's grave.