Highgarden

The castle stands in the Reach, on the banks of the Mander, right where the Ocean Road crosses the Roseroad.

It sits on a hill with gentle green slopes, laid out with an almost geometric symmetry. Three concentric rings of pale stone wall it in, each watched over by slender towers, and between the outer ring and the next grows a maze of thornbrush meant to slow down any army that breaches the first line.

Inside, old stone sits side by side with quiet luxury. Shaded courtyards, marble colonnades, ponds and hand-built waterfalls fill the grounds, and statues disappear little by little under climbing vines and roses. The oldest towers, square and heavy, date back to the Age of Heroes; the newer ones rise round and slender, almost delicate by comparison. Harps, fiddles, flutes and the voices of the singers the family keeps outnumber the clash of swords in the corridors, and the stables hold finer bloodlines than many royal courts in Westeros. Anyone who prefers the water can head down to the Mander, where pleasure barges wait to carry visitors through the gardens.

Highgarden's sept rivals only the Great Sept of Baelor and the Starry Sept in Oldtown. What sets the castle apart, though, is its godswood: instead of a single heart tree, three ancient weirwoods grow there, their branches so tangled together they look like one trunk split in three, crowns closing over a still pool below. They are called the Three Singers, and legend holds that Garth Greenhand himself planted them.

Before the Targaryens crossed the narrow sea, Highgarden belonged to House Gardener, which had ruled the Reach for generations. That line ended at the Field of Fire.

Harlen Tyrell, who had served the Gardeners as steward, handed the castle over to Aegon I without a fight. In return he was named Lord of the Reach, with all the lands and honors that came with it — and that is how the Tyrells came to rule Highgarden.

Ever since, most of the grain, fruit, and meat produced in the Reach — the region that feeds more of Westeros than any other — passes through Highgarden before it goes anywhere else.

Before settling into King's Landing, Renly Baratheon leaves Highgarden in the hands of Lord Mace Tyrell, backed by ten thousand men.

Robert's death changes everything: Renly and Loras Tyrell leave the court and head back to Highgarden.

At Highgarden, Renly marries Margaery Tyrell, Lord Mace's daughter, and declares himself king with the full weight of House Tyrell behind him.

After Renly dies, Petyr Baelish travels to the castle to feel out an alliance with the Tyrells, left without the candidate they had backed so heavily.

When famine hits the poor quarters of King's Landing, the Tyrells send food carts down from Highgarden, and the smallfolk start to see the family differently.

While most of the family travels to the capital, Willas Tyrell, Lord Mace's heir, stays behind at Highgarden.