House Tully of Riverrun

House Tully descends from the First Men, and its line fades back into the Age of Heroes. Ser Edmure Tully and his sons fought for Tristifer IV Mudd, King of the Rivers and the Hills; when he died, the family submitted to the Andal conqueror Armistead Vance. It was that Edmure's son, Axel, who received land by Tumblestone, and there built Riverrun.

For more than a thousand years the Tullys held the castle without ever wearing a crown of their own, serving as vassals and often riding out to defend the Trident against the Kings of the Rock.

Their fortunes changed with Lord Edmyn Tully, who pulled the river lords away from Harren the Black and brought them to Aegon Targaryen's side during the Conquest. After the burning of Harrenhal, Aegon named him the first Lord Paramount of the Trident — a title that came without great wealth or great armies, since House Tully still fielded fewer men than its own bannermen.

Loyalty held through the kings that followed: Aenys I relied on the Tullys during Harren the Red's rebellion, and Maegor I had their support at the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, though the house ended up backing Prince Jaehaerys against Maegor himself. In the year 101, at the Great Council called after Jaehaerys I's death, Lord Grover Tully spoke in favor of Prince Viserys as heir, and eleven years later the sons of the house competed for Princess Rhaenyra's favor during her visit to the Trident.

When the Dance of the Dragons broke out, the house split just as the rest of the Trident did. Old Lord Grover leaned toward the Greens, but his grandson Elmo and great-grandson Kermit brought the Tullys to Rhaenyra's side and led the river lords into the Second Battle of Tumbleton.

Grover died soon after that battle, and Elmo followed him into the grave forty-nine days later. Command passed to his son Kermit, who led the company known as the Boys and killed Lord Borros Baratheon at the Battle of the Kingsroad; his brother Oscar would later found the Stormbreakers.

Generations on, the house stayed loyal to the Targaryens through the Blackfyre Rebellions. Lord Medgar Tully lost at the Tourney of Ashford, and when the Great Spring Sickness swept the realm, it took his life too, leaving the house to an heir barely eight years old.

Lord Hoster Tully tried to marry off his own brother, Ser Brynden, to Bethany Redwyne. Brynden refused outright, and the quarrel between the two dragged on for the better part of a year — which is where he earned the name Blackfish.

Hoster also took in a ward from the Fingers, Petyr Baelish, who fell for his elder daughter, Catelyn, and was turned down. He consoled himself with the younger daughter, Lysa, and got her with child; Hoster then made her drink moon tea so the baby would never be born.

When Lord Tywin Lannister proposed marrying his son Jaime to Lysa, Hoster agreed — but Jaime joined the Kingsguard before the wedding could happen, and Hoster turned down Tywin's second offer, this time with Tyrion. He also forbade Petyr from courting either daughter, citing his low birth, and accepted Lord Rickard Stark's offer instead: Catelyn was betrothed to Brandon, heir to Winterfell. Petyr challenged Brandon to a duel over her favor, lost, and was exiled from Riverrun.

Brandon's death didn't undo the alliance his father had built: when Robert Baratheon rose against the Targaryens, the Starks, the Arryns and the Tullys stood behind him. In the very ceremony where she was meant to marry Brandon, Catelyn married his brother Eddard instead, while Lysa married Jon Arryn.

Lord Hoster led his men into the Battle of the Bells, though not every bannerman answered as quickly — the Freys held back until after the Battle of the Trident, by which point the war was already decided. Once it was over, Hoster's daughters left for their new homes, and Ser Brynden escorted Lysa to the Vale, where he would serve as Knight of the Gate.

With Lord Hoster bedridden, the running of Riverrun fell to his heir, Ser Edmure. The spark that pulled the house into war came from the Vale: after Jon Arryn's sudden death, Lysa sent Catelyn a coded message accusing the Lannisters. Catelyn's journey south, and her subsequent capture of Tyrion Lannister at the Inn at the Crossroads, lit the fuse.

Tywin Lannister answered by calling his banners and sending Gregor Clegane to ravage the Riverlands. Rather than concentrate his forces, Edmure spread them thin to watch villages and border crossings — a choice that left the way open for Ser Jaime Lannister to lay siege to Riverrun once King Robert died; Lord Beric Dondarrion, sent to hunt down the Mountain, was defeated at Mummer's Ford.

Lysa refused to send the Vale's armies to her family's aid, and Ser Brynden, furious, resigned as Knight of the Gate to join Robb Stark instead. It was Brynden who pulled Jaime from his own camp, letting Robb capture him at the Battle of the Whispering Wood, and who later broke the siege of Riverrun with a surprise assault at the Battle of the Camps — helped by Lord Tytos Blackwood, commanding the garrison, who rescued Edmure in the fighting. In the castle's great hall, river lords and northmen alike proclaimed Robb King in the North.

While Robb campaigned in the west, Catelyn returned to Riverrun, where Edmure was guarding the rear and taking in villagers fleeing Lannister raids, straining the castle's stores. When false word reached her that two of her sons had died at Winterfell, Catelyn freed Jaime Lannister from captivity on her own authority.

After the Battle of the Blackwater, King Joffrey formally stripped the rebel Hoster of his office and handed it to Petyr Baelish, the house's former ward, now Lord Paramount of the Trident.

Hoster died not long after, delirious and full of regret over having forced Lysa to abort Petyr's child years before; his calls for her to come to his bedside went unanswered. Edmure inherited Riverrun in title and in fact, and his father's body was sent downriver by the house's custom, on a boat loaded with stones and wood, set alight by a flaming arrow that should have been his to loose — though the Blackfish had to do it for him.

After the sack of the Crag, Robb broke his betrothal to the Freys by marrying Jeyne Westerling instead. To make amends, Edmure agreed to take his place and marry Roslin Frey; the Blackfish was named Warden of the Southern Marches, holding Riverrun while the rest marched north for the wedding.

At the Twins, during the ceremony itself, the Freys and Boltons turned on their guests. Catelyn and Robb died that night along with much of their retinue, and the laws of hospitality were broken for good; Catelyn's body was thrown naked from the walls into the Green Fork, a deliberate mockery of her house's funeral rites.

Edmure was taken prisoner, and House Tully was stripped of its lands, titles and income. Riverrun passed to a newly created branch of the Freys themselves, though the title of Lord Paramount of the Trident had already belonged to Petyr Baelish for some time. Ser Brynden held out under siege in the castle, one of the last strongholds still loyal to the Starks left in the south.

The siege dragged on for months. Ser Ryman Frey threatened daily to hang Edmure, but it was Ser Jaime Lannister's arrival that forced a resolution: Jaime threatened to catapult Roslin Frey's newborn son against the walls if the castle didn't yield. Edmure convinced the Blackfish to surrender the fortress — who then vanished without a trace at the last moment.

Edmure was held captive at Casterly Rock, with a promise that Roslin would join him once she'd given birth. No one had any confirmed word of Brynden Tully again.

Catelyn's body, thrown into the river at the Red Wedding, was later recovered by a pack of wolves. Risen again under the name Lady Stoneheart, she took command of the Brotherhood without Banners and began hunting down those responsible for the betrayal, hanging Petyr Frey and Merrett Frey at Oldstones.