Great Council of 305

With the capital in ruins and the queen dead, the surviving heads of the great houses gathered to decide who would rule what remained of the Six Kingdoms. Tyrion Lannister addressed the assembly and argued for a different standard than blood: he proposed judging by the stories people tell, and who gets to be at the centre of them.

He pointed to Bran Stark, seated among them, as the one who held the fullest memory of everything that had happened. The assembled lords accepted the proposal and raised him as king, breaking with the custom of direct inheritance.

Sansa Stark accepted her brother's crowning, but set one condition: the North would swear no fealty to the new throne and would stand outside its rule. The council agreed, and from then on the North answered only to its own lords.

The same assembly also settled Jon Snow's fate. His life was spared in exchange for exile, and he was sent back to the Night's Watch.