Yohn Royce

Runestone is his seat, deep in the Vale, and from there Yohn Royce presides over his own: three sons already knighted —Andar, Robar, and Waymar— and a daughter, Ysilla. Tall, grey-haired, with broad hands shaped by years of combat, he still carries a strength that catches people off guard. Heavy brows frame his grey eyes, and when he speaks, his deep voice fills a room.

Away from the hall, he is above all a jouster. He competes wrapped in bronze armor passed down from generations long before his own, etched with runes tradition credits with turning aside any blow. Those who know him describe a proud, imposing man, though calm in manner and measured in speech once the lists are behind him.

At the Tourney at Harrenhal, Yohn was unhorsed in the joust by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, then at the height of his renown as a rider. Years later he tried his luck at the tournament held in Lannisport, where this time it was a far younger knight, Ser Jorah Mormont, who put him on the ground.

His finest hour in the lists came during the melee at a tourney held for Prince Joffrey's nameday: there he faced Thoros of Myr, famous for fighting with a sword wreathed in flame. When the red priest's fire guttered out mid-fight, Yohn seized the moment and downed him with a plain mace, no sorcery involved.

There was a time when Tywin Lannister sought to marry his son Tyrion to one of Yohn's daughters; House Royce turned down the match.

In 296 AC, Yohn escorted his youngest son, Waymar, on the road to the Wall, where the young man was to take the black of the Night's Watch. The party stopped at Winterfell, where Yohn joined in several hunts with the Starks and had occasion to speak with Lady Catelyn Tully.

When King's Landing hosts the Tourney of the Hand, Yohn travels to the capital with his sons Andar and Robar, and settles into court life with a sizable retinue of knights and sworn swords.

Soon after, he joins the hunt for the white hart that King Robert Baratheon organizes in the Kingswood. When Lord Eddard Stark, Hand of the King, learns that Ser Gregor Clegane is raiding villages in the Riverlands, he sends Robar Royce back into the wood to warn his father and the king. Once the hart is found already dead, the Royces head back to the city; Robert, instead, stays behind to chase a monstrous boar that will prove his undoing.

With Robert dying in the castle, Lord Petyr Baelish suggests to Eddard that Yohn Bronze might side with him against Queen Cersei over the succession. Ned chooses to trust the gold cloaks instead, and Baelish, far from keeping the plan secret, hands it straight to Cersei.

During the War of the Five Kings, Ser Kevan Lannister names Yohn among the suitors circling Lysa Tully, widowed since Jon Arryn's death and now Lady of the Eyrie.

Lady Arryn herself claims it is Yohn who pushes her to bring the Vale into the war, under the pretext of riding to Riverrun's defense against the advancing Lannister forces.

After Lysa's death, Yohn calls together five other lords of the Vale —Benedar Belmore, Gilwood Hunter, Horton Redfort, Symond Templeton, and Anya Waynwood— and gathers them at Runestone, where they all sign a document that makes them the Lords Declarant. Yohn's cousin, Nestor Royce, gets word to Petyr Baelish first, warning him that Yohn means to question the singer Marillion about Lysa's death and strip Baelish of his post as Lord Protector.

The Declarant lords ring the Gates of the Moon with their men, and Yohn, together with Nestor and Ser Lyn Corbray, climbs the Giant's Lance to confront Baelish at the Eyrie. Sansa Stark, passed off there as Baelish's bastard daughter, fears being recognized by Yohn, who saw her as a child during her stay at Winterfell; Nestor reassures his cousin that there is no cause for suspicion.

Yohn proposes fostering young Robert Arryn at Runestone as his ward and squire, a plan Baelish backs without any real enthusiasm. Tension boils over when Lyn Corbray draws his sword, Lady Forlorn, against Ser Lothor Brune, and it is Yohn himself who steps in to stop bloodshed; even so, Baelish blames the Declarants for the drawn steel. When the rest of the group grants Petyr another year to prove himself worthy of leading the Vale, Yohn storms out of the Eyrie without agreeing to the terms.

Back at Runestone, Yohn holds a melee open only to squires. Harrold Hardyng, nephew and heir of young Lord Robert Arryn, wins the bout, and Yohn knights him in reward.

Around the same time, his daughter Ysilla marries Ser Mychel Redfort, a match that leaves Mya Stone none too pleased.