House Mormont of Bear Island

Legend says Bear Island was won, not inherited: Rodrik Stark, then King in the North, granted it to the Mormonts after one of them prevailed in a feat of strength. Ever since, the house has held on to a beautiful but poor stretch of land, far from trade routes and easy harvests.

Despite the scarcity, the Mormonts keep Longclaw, a Valyrian steel bastard sword, a luxury few northern houses can match. Their keep is built of logs and packed earth, and its gate bears a carved woman in bearskin, a child at her breast and an axe in her other hand. The house also attended the Tourney at Harrenhal, one of the great gatherings of Seven Kingdoms nobility.

Lord Jeor Mormont arranged a marriage for his son Jorah, still young, to a woman of House Glover. The union lasted ten years without children, and she died unable to recover from a third birth; by then Jeor already wore the black of the Night's Watch, having likely left before Robert's Rebellion. Lordship of Bear Island passed to Jorah.

When Lord Eddard Stark called his bannermen to the rebellion, Jorah answered and fought at the Battle of the Trident in 283 AC. Five years later, in 288 AC, his father was chosen Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

After Balon Greyjoy's rebellion, Jorah married Lynesse Hightower, a woman who never adjusted to the island's poverty or hardness. To please her he spent himself into ruin, and finally crossed a line he could not walk back from: he was caught selling poachers taken on his lands into slavery.

He fled with Lynesse to the Free Cities to escape Lord Eddard Stark's justice, turned mercenary in exile, and she abandoned him soon after. Leadership of House Mormont then passed to Lady Maege, Jeor's sister.

When war breaks out in the south, Bear Island does not stay out of it: Lady Maege Mormont answers Robb Stark's call and marches with her daughters folded into his army. Jeor remains Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and leads the Great Ranging beyond the Wall, while his son Jorah, already in exile, follows Daenerys Targaryen across Essos.

In Westeros, Maege and her daughters stay with Robb's troops through the campaign, the only branch of the house present in the war fought in the south.

Beyond the Wall, the Great Ranging ends in disaster: Jeor Mormont's own men mutiny at Craster's Keep and kill him, leaving the Night's Watch without a commander at a critical moment.

In Essos, Ser Barristan Selmy uncovers that Jorah had long been sending word about Daenerys to King Robert Baratheon, dead by then. Learning this, Daenerys casts him out of her trust and her company.

Before reaching the Twins, Robb Stark pulls Lady Maege and her younger daughters from the main column and sends them to the Neck to find Howland Reed.

Dacey Mormont, the eldest daughter and heir to the house, does not escape: she dies in the slaughter the Freys and Boltons set under the banner of hospitality at the Red Wedding.

When Stannis Baratheon demands the loyalty of the northern lords, it is young Lyanna Mormont who answers him: a letter refusing to acknowledge him as her king. The Mormonts only change course once Stannis takes Deepwood Motte and hands it back to the Glovers; then they join his cause.

Her sister Alysane joins the army marching to retake Winterfell and ends up as one of the guards over Asha Greyjoy, a prisoner of that campaign.