Wendel Manderly

Wendel is the second son of Lord Wyman Manderly, heavyset like his father and older brother though somewhat less so, and still counted an immense man by those who know him. Bald, with a walrus mustache that turns heads wherever he goes and a face round as the moon, he has a reputation for being loud and boisterous, and holds his own honor in very serious regard.

When Robb Stark calls his bannermen, Wendel leaves White Harbor alongside his brother to join the northern army. He remains under Robb's direct command when the northern forces split, and becomes part of the young king's personal guard.

As part of that guard, Wendel fights alongside Robb Stark at the Whispering Wood, where the young lord of Winterfell surprises and defeats Jaime Lannister's army.

The clash confirms him as one of the trusted men close to the King in the North, though his own part in the fighting stays in the background compared to other captains.

As the war goes on, Lord Wyman puts forward two names as a possible husband for Lady Donella Manderly: his own and Wendel's. She turns down both proposals, and the matter goes no further.

Wendel also accompanies Lady Catelyn Tully on her journey south, when she seeks to parley with the rival kings Renly and Stannis Baratheon in hopes of winning their strength for her son's cause.

After Robb Stark breaks his betrothal to House Frey, Wendel offers to take a Frey bride himself, as a gesture to mend the insult.

The gesture does not save him. He dies at the Twins, at the feast the Freys hold to celebrate peace: a crossbow bolt takes him through the mouth.

When his father learns of it, he does not hide his bitterness: 'Wendel was always a brave lad. It does not surprise me that he died a hero,' he says at one point, and elsewhere denounces his hosts outright: 'My son Wendel went to the Twins as a guest. He ate Lord Walder's bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast among friends. And they murdered him! They murdered him, I tell you! May those Freys choke on their lies!'

Some time later, three Freys — Rhaegar, Jared, and Symond — bring Wendel's bones back to White Harbor and hand them over to his father.

The trip has a second purpose: the three also mean to make sure House Manderly still holds its loyalty to the crown of Tommen I Baratheon.