Varys

By his own account, Varys was born a slave in Lys and orphaned young; he grew up with a troupe of mummers that toured the Free Cities, and had already set foot in Oldtown and King's Landing before he turned ten.

In Myr, a sorcerer paid a sum his master couldn't refuse. Varys assumed he'd been bought for another man's pleasure; instead the stranger needed his manhood for a blood-magic rite, and cut it from him mid-ceremony before turning him out into the street. Out of that wound came a thief: he became the best in Myr, until another cutpurse's jealousy drove him to flee to Pentos.

There he befriended a penniless sellsword named Illyrio Mopatis. Between the two of them they built a simple business — Varys stole, Illyrio returned the stolen goods for a fee — and it made them rich within a few years. That was when Varys realized a secret was worth more than a jewel, and he began buying orphaned children, his "little mice," to teach them to slip down chimneys, climb walls, and read other people's letters without anyone noticing.

Word of his talents reached Aerys II Targaryen, a king who no longer trusted his own Hand, his wife, or his son. Varys joined the Small Council as Master of Whisperers and grew more indispensable as the king's paranoia deepened. Ser Barristan Selmy would later say that the rot of Aerys's reign began with him.

It's believed Aerys himself showed him the Red Keep's secret passages, and that Varys set his little birds to learning them too. With his influence, the king even dared to leave the capital to attend the Tourney at Harrenhal, despite his fear of Prince Rhaegar.

When Robert's war reached the Trident and Tywin Lannister's army camped outside King's Landing, Varys urged Aerys not to open the gates. The king listened to Grand Maester Pycelle instead. The gates opened, and the city was sacked.

When Robert Baratheon took the throne, Varys was pardoned along with Grand Maester Pycelle and Ser Jaime Lannister, and kept his seat as though kings were interchangeable. In the new king's name he sent gifts — swords, ponies, fur-trimmed cloaks — to Edric Storm, the king's bastard being raised at Storm's End.

For years he tracked Viserys Targaryen's movements across Essos and kept the Small Council informed, and later reported that Selyse Florent had taken up with a red priest.

One of Varys's little birds, Ser Jorah Mormont, reported from Essos that the exiled princess Daenerys Targaryen had married Khal Drogo. The news brought Robert riding back from Winterfell with his new Hand, Lord Eddard Stark.

In King's Landing, Varys told Catelyn Tully he didn't recognize the Valyrian steel dagger used against her son Bran, and later, disguised and under cover of night, warned Ned that Queen Cersei Lannister wanted Robert dead. He also told him that Jon Arryn, the previous Hand, had been poisoned with the Tears of Lys for the crime of asking too many questions.

When Jorah reported that Daenerys was with child, Robert ordered both her and the child killed, and it was Ned who asked Varys to stop the attempt. After Ned's fall, Varys visited him one last time disguised as a gaoler and convinced him to confess to treason for his daughter Sansa's sake. When Ned asked who he truly served, Varys answered: no lord, but the realm itself. Joffrey, against his mother's advice and Varys's own, had him beheaded anyway.

With Tywin Lannister off campaigning during the War of the Five Kings, Tyrion Lannister served as Hand of the King, and Varys became his most useful source of information — never for free. He helped Tyrion take control of the City Watch and told him that Ser Lancel Lannister was sleeping with his cousin, Queen Cersei.

Varys and Ser Jacelyn Bywater searched without luck for the missing Arya Stark. At the same time, Varys secretly protected Shae, Tyrion's lover, opening a hidden passage from Chataya's brothel to the Tower of the Hand, and used those long conversations to finally tell Tyrion the story of his castration. It also came out that it was Varys who had smuggled Gendry out of the city under Yoren's protection, so Cersei's men wouldn't find him.

After the Battle of the Blackwater, Tywin Lannister reclaimed the Handship and Tyrion became Master of Coin, but his alliance with Varys held. When Jaime Lannister vanished from captivity at Riverrun, Varys and Tywin quietly set Ser Gregor Clegane and other men to searching for him.

When Tyrion stood trial for Joffrey's murder at his own wedding, Varys testified against him with detailed notes of their conversations. He also offered a reward for Sansa Stark, who had disappeared that same night. Sentenced to death, Tyrion was freed by his brother Jaime, who held a knife on him to force his help; Varys drugged the gaolers and led him through the tunnels beneath the Red Keep to the stair up to the Tower of the Hand, where Tyrion climbed to kill their father.

During the siege of Meereen, Ser Barristan Selmy revealed to a furious Daenerys Targaryen that Jorah Mormont had been spying on her for years for Varys's gold. Jorah didn't deny it: he'd taken the money, learned the ciphers, and written the letters.

After Tywin Lannister's body was found, Cersei sent Ser Meryn Trant to fetch Varys, but the Spider was already gone from the Red Keep. A gaoler named Rugen vanished with him, leaving behind only a coin of House Gardener — the clue Cersei would use to grow suspicious of the Tyrells. Rugen, it turned out, had been one of Varys's disguises all along.

Varys smuggled Tyrion into Pentos, where the eunuch's old friend Illyrio Mopatis was waiting. There Tyrion learned Varys's best-kept secret: during Robert's Rebellion he had swapped the infant Prince Aegon for a peasant's baby, then had him raised in Essos under Lord Jon Connington while the rest of Westeros believed him dead in the sack of the capital. To cover the trail, Varys had even invented the story that Connington died in Lys after being caught stealing from the Golden Company. The plan now was to marry Aegon to Daenerys Targaryen and set him on the Iron Throne.

Back in King's Landing, Varys used the Red Keep's passages to kill Grand Maester Pycelle, then sent for Ser Kevan Lannister, ruling as Lord Regent since Cersei's arrest. He shot him with a crossbow and apologized as he did it: it wasn't spite, he said, only that a competent regent threatened to undo years of careful planning. He then called in several of his little birds to end Kevan's suffering.