Victarion Greyjoy

Victarion is one of the sons Lord Quellon Greyjoy had with his second wife, Sunderly; sources disagree on where exactly he falls among his siblings, though they agree that Quellon had other children from an earlier marriage as well. His brothers Euron and Aeron mocked him as a boy, something Victarion never quite let go of. It was Euron himself who, years later, found him his first wife — to make a man of him, as he put it.

That first marriage ended when his wife died giving birth to a stillborn daughter. His second wife caught the pox and died as well. With his third wife, a salt wife, Euron intervened again: he seduced her and got her with child. Victarion beat her to death to save his honor and left her body on the shore for the crabs to take; only the ban on kinslaying kept him from doing the same to Euron.

Victarion has not remarried since, nor is he known to have taken another woman. His anger at Euron has never faded — he has forgiven him nothing, and feels nothing for him but hatred.

Together with Balon and Euron, Victarion talked their father Quellon into joining Robert Baratheon's war against the Targaryens, and the Iron Islands struck at the Reach as the conflict was already winding down. Quellon died at the Battle of the Mander.

With their father dead, Balon became the new Lord of Pyke and sailed home with his brothers, Victarion among them.

Victarion has never questioned his older brother Balon's command and follows him without reservation. When Balon rises against the Iron Throne, it is Victarion who takes the Iron Fleet to sea, following a plan Euron drew up: sail to Lannisport and burn the Lannister fleet where it lies at anchor.

The move isn't enough to win the war. Off Fair Isle, Stannis Baratheon's forces spring a trap on the Iron Fleet and tear it apart; Aeron's ship, the Golden Storm, is cut in two by Fury, Stannis's flagship.

Years later, with Westeros at war again, Balon musters his forces at Pyke to launch the invasion of the North. Victarion lends his own steersman, Rymolf, to his nephew Theon, newly returned to the islands after years among the Starks. At the feast in the Great Hall he laughs when Asha mocks Theon in front of everyone, and afterward, once the feast has ended, stays behind talking tides and winds with Balon.

When Balon declares himself King of the Iron Islands, he sends Victarion and the Iron Fleet upriver, along the Saltspear and the Fever River. Victarion's surprise attack is enough to take Moat Cailin.

Victarion spends months in the ruins of Moat Cailin, wearing his mail day and night against the bog devils. Among his men, Ralf Stonehouse, Ralf Kenning, Ralf the Limper and Nute begin talking of him as a possible king. When word reaches him that his brother Aeron has called a kingsmoot, Victarion sails his fleet back to the Iron Islands, leaving only a token garrison behind under Ralf Kenning.

Back at Pyke, he claims the Seastone Chair as Balon's brother and holds a feast for the captains at Nagga's Cradle. Fralegg and Alvyn Sharp back him, and Hotho Harlaw offers his twelve-year-old daughter as a bride. Lord Baelor Blacktyde, though, is wary — he knows Victarion means to carry on the war. When his niece Asha proposes they rule together, she as his Hand, and make peace with the northmen, Victarion turns her down.

At the assembly on Old Wyk, Ralf the Red, Ralf the Limper and Nute act as Victarion's champions, and his men hand out silver, gold and gems to the gathered captains. Victarion promises to carry on Balon's war, but the crowd chooses Euron instead, who has promised to conquer Westeros with dragons.

Aeron asks Victarion to rebel against Euron, but his habit of obedience outweighs his hatred, and he keeps following his new king's orders. Doing as Euron commands, he uses the Iron Fleet to keep Lord Blacktyde from leaving Nagga's Cradle; Euron then has him executed for refusing to accept him as king. As a gift, Euron gives Victarion a dark-skinned woman taken from a slave ship to warm his bed; Victarion wants nothing from his brother, but gives in when Euron threatens to kill her.

Victarion then leads the conquest of the Shield Islands. His men cut down unarmed sailors, and he himself wins a duel against Ser Talbert Serry, though he comes out of it with a wounded left hand. Euron, meanwhile, names Nute Lord of Oakenshield, a title Victarion had thought would be his, and treats the wives of the slain lords with a cruelty that disgusts Victarion.

In a private meeting at Lord Hewett's castle, Victarion spits out the shade of the evening his brother had given him to drink. Euron then sends him to find Daenerys Targaryen in Slaver's Bay and offer her marriage in his name, promising him the Seastone Chair once he himself sits the Iron Throne. Victarion accepts the mission, but keeps his real intention to himself: to court Daenerys for his own sake.

When Theon negotiates Moat Cailin's surrender, Ramsay Bolton has the small garrison Victarion left behind put to death. By then the Iron Fleet is already sailing east: past the Stepstones it splits into three squadrons bound for Meereen. Victarion's squadron follows the coast of the Disputed Lands, calls at Volantis, and sails on past the ruins of Valyria.

The dark-skinned woman Euron gave him travels with him aboard the Iron Victory, and Victarion takes her to his bed. Off the Isle of Cedars the fleet loses nearly half its ships. His left hand won't heal, and Victarion begins to suspect that Kerwin, the maester Euron saddled him with, is slowly poisoning him.

Out at sea, the crew of the Dolor finds a red priest, Moqorro, clinging to wreckage. Before the sailors can finish him off, Moqorro talks Victarion into letting him treat his hand. Behind closed doors, something that looks like magic leaves Victarion's hand blackened and burned; on his order, and on the priest's word, his men kill Maester Kerwin.

From there the fleet leaves a trail of deaths on its way to Meereen: captains drowned and beheaded for insisting Daenerys Targaryen is dead, enslaved rowers freed and then put back on the oars, a fisherman strangled for laughing at his ignorance of the Dothraki Sea. Moqorro prays each night before fires that, he says, show him the future, and the crew starts calling him the Black Flame and fearing him. Victarion, without giving up the Drowned God, begins making offerings to R'hllor as well.

When they capture a Yunkish slave galley, Victarion hands the boys over to the rowers' benches and the girls to his captains, keeping the seven prettiest for himself; he sets them adrift in a burning boat as a sacrifice to his two gods. He then shows Moqorro the dragon horn Euron gave him, and the priest tells him he can only claim it with blood.