House Bracken of Stone Hedge

Long before the Andals landed in Westeros, the Brackens already sat on thrones of their own in the Riverlands, one petty king among many. Their version of history holds that the Blackwoods started out as their vassals and stole the crown from them by treachery; the Blackwoods, naturally, tell it the other way around. Neither house has ever let go of the grudge that argument produced.

When the Andal invasion came, Bracken and Blackwood banded together against the common enemy for once, but the alliance did not save them from defeat at the River of Tears. The peace that followed was no kinder than the war: the Brackens abandoned the old gods for the Faith of the Seven, and the Blackwoods never forgave what they call the poisoning of the weirwood at Raventree Hall. The lands around Battle Vale and the village of Blackbuckle were fought over for generations, and not even the marriages arranged between the two families — one of which produced the bastard Benedict Rivers, founder of House Justman — closed the wound for more than a few years.

When Lady Agnes Blackwood led the river lords' resistance against the ironborn king Harwyn Hoare, Lord Lothar Bracken saw a chance to settle an old score a different way: he struck the rear of the very army meant to fight Harwyn. He may have hoped to claim the crown of the Trident if Harwyn fell, but Harwyn did not fall — he crushed the Storm King Arrec Durrandon instead and took the Riverlands for House Hoare.

Lothar gained nothing from the betrayal. Harwyn had him put to death as soon as he rose against him.

When Aegon Targaryen landed in Westeros, the Brackens turned on their liege Harren the Black and joined the host that marched on Harrenhal to besiege it. It was a wager that put them on the winning side.

Years later, Queen Visenya Targaryen decided the way to end the old Bracken-Blackwood feud was to marry them to each other: she arranged a double wedding, a son of each house to a daughter of the other, binding them by blood as well as by treaty.

In 42 AC, when the Warrior's Sons challenged King Maegor I Targaryen to a Trial of Seven, ser Lyle Bracken fought among the champions ranged against him. He opened the combat by killing Ser Dick Beans almost at once, but the trial ended with the deaths of every Warrior's Son, Lyle included.

Ser Olyver Bracken, another Bracken who had served in Maegor's Kingsguard, outlived the king but not the suspicions of the boy who succeeded him: young Jaehaerys judged that coming to him alive, instead of dying in his defense, was itself a broken oath. Olyver chose the black over death, in 48 AC.

The Night's Watch gave him no peace. Two years later, in 50 AC, Olyver led a rebellion among the black brothers. It was short-lived and ended with his head struck off by Lord Walton Stark, wielding the Valyrian steel of Ice.

In 112 AC, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen toured the Trident looking for a husband, and two young lords settled the matter with steel: ser Samwell Blackwood and ser Amos Bracken, son of Lord Humfrey Bracken, dueled over her. Like the rest of the river lords, the Brackens would end up on Rhaenyra's side once the war for the throne began.

But once the Dance of the Dragons turned into open war, the Brackens switched sides and joined the Greens. Stone Hedge paid for it: Blackwood riders burned their crops, scattered their livestock, and sacked villages and septs alike. When the Brackens finally raised an army, Lord Samwell Blackwood caught them by surprise and killed ser Amos in single combat, though the accounts say the finishing blow was a weirwood arrow, said to have been loosed by Black Aly.

Ser Raylon Rivers, Amos's bastard brother, led the survivors back to Stone Hedge and found it taken: Prince Daemon Targaryen had stormed the castle and was holding Lord Humfrey, his remaining children, his third wife, and his lowborn mistress. Raylon surrendered the castle to save them. Before the war ended, the Brackens switched sides again, this time for the Blacks.

Lord Bracken backed Daemon Blackfyre and Aegor Rivers — son of Lady Barba Bracken — when they rose in the Blackfyre Rebellion, but storms delayed his fleet of Myrish crossbowmen and they never reached the Battle of the Redgrass Field.

Ten years later, Lord Bracken died after a long illness on the Trident. His heir was already gone, killed in the Great Spring Sickness, so the house passed to Otho Bracken. Otho wasted no time reopening the old fire with the Blackwoods: he killed Quentyn Blackwood at a tourney in King's Landing.

Around then, Lord Hoster Tully tried to marry his brother ser Brynden to a Bracken daughter. Lord Bracken said no.

Three Stone Hedge men-at-arms — Kurleket, Lharys, and Mohor — helped Catelyn Stark seize Tyrion Lannister at the crossroads inn. None of them came back: all three died on the road to the Vale, killed by the mountain clans.

Once war broke out, ser Gregor Clegane burned his way across Bracken lands, and Lord Jonos Bracken was among the lords King Joffrey ordered to swear fealty. After the Battle of the Camps, Jonos reached Riverrun and, in the war council, proposed swearing to Renly Baratheon — perhaps only to contradict Lord Tytos Blackwood's earlier call to march on Harrenhal.

Jonos later took Stone Hedge back from the Lannisters, but came out of it badly wounded, and his nephew Hendry Bracken was killed in the fighting.

The Brackens took Lord Quenten Banefort prisoner, and lost Harry Rivers, the house's bastard, to murder. Lord Jonos was among the seven lords present at Lord Hoster Tully's funeral.

After King Robb Stark died at the Red Wedding — where a dozen Bracken men also fell — Jonos surrendered to the Iron Throne and was pardoned. In exchange, the Brackens turned on the Blackwoods, who stayed loyal to the Starks, and ended up besieging them at Raventree Hall; later, Bracken dead would be found buried alongside their Blackwood enemies at Quiet Isle.

When Lord Tytos Blackwood refused to yield to Jonos, it fell to Jaime Lannister to settle the siege of Riverrun. Tytos conceded only a fraction of what Jonos demanded, and Jaime also ordered Jonos to send one of his daughters to serve at court in King's Landing.