Riverrun

Before Riverrun existed, the Tullys were sworn to House Mudd of Oldstones. That bond broke when King Tristifer IV Mudd fell during the Andal invasion, and it was Ser Axel Tully who raised the red sandstone castle at the meeting point of the two rivers and gave it the name Riverrun.

The site turned out to be a goldmine: holding the river crossing gave the Tullys enough wealth to stand up to the Kings of the Rock and shield the riverlands for generations. The castle has barely changed hands in over a thousand years, though there was one scare when Harwyn Hoare, King of the Isles and the Rivers, invaded the region — the lord of Riverrun at the time abandoned the castle to join Lady Agnes Blackwood, whose forces were later betrayed by Lord Lothar Bracken.

Generations later, when Aegon Targaryen crossed the narrow sea to claim the Seven Kingdoms, Lord Edmyn Tully was the first to raise the dragon banner at Riverrun, pulling much of the rest of the Trident's lords into revolt against Harren the Black. After the burning of Harrenhal, Aegon rewarded that early loyalty by naming Edmyn the first Lord Paramount of the Trident, a title that has gone hand in hand with the castle ever since.

During the civil war the Targaryens fought among themselves, Riverrun tried to stay out of it: Ser Elmo Tully barred the castle gates against the wishes of his own father, Lord Grover Tully. The neutrality didn't last — Elmo and his son Kermit ended up declaring for the black dragon's side before the war was over.

With Aegon III's reign already under way, Riverrun hosted one of the so-called Widow's Faires, where women of the region who had lost their husbands in the war married northmen who had marched south during the fighting and had no reason left to go home.

A young Petyr Baelish was also raised at Riverrun for a time, alongside Lord Hoster Tully's three children: Catelyn, Lysa, and Edmure. A young Jaime Lannister passed through as well, sent by Lord Sumner Crakehall to deliver a message; Hoster tried, without success, to interest him in Lysa.

Years later, with the realm at war, the sept Hoster had built in the castle gardens in memory of his wife, Minisa Whent, hosted two weddings on the same day: Eddard Stark married Catelyn, and Jon Arryn married Lysa. Not long after, Eddard and Catelyn's first child, Robb Stark, was born at Riverrun.

When war broke out between the Starks and the Lannisters, Jaime Lannister laid siege to Riverrun and defeated Edmure Tully beneath its own walls, taking him prisoner. The siege didn't hold — Robb Stark arrived and broke it, and in the nearby woods his army crushed the Lannisters at the Battle of the Whispering Wood, where Jaime himself was taken captive.

Proclaimed King in the North and King of the Trident, Robb Stark made Riverrun his headquarters. He ran the war from there until he decided to carry the fight west, leaving the castle in the hands of his uncle Edmure, who in turn marched out to block Tywin Lannister's attempt to return to his own lands.

When Robb Stark and Edmure left for the Twins, Riverrun was left in the hands of Brynden Tully, with Robb's wife, Jeyne Westerling, still inside its walls.

The Red Wedding changed everything. As soon as word reached the castle, two separate armies closed in around it: one of Frey men under Ryman Frey, another of Lannister soldiers under Daven Lannister. By royal decree, meanwhile, Riverrun already had a new owner on paper — Ser Emmon Frey.

The siege dragged on, with three camps ringing the castle and a barrier thrown across the Red Fork. Brynden Tully refused to yield even when Jaime Lannister came in person to talk him down.

Jaime had better luck with Edmure: he pulled him out of his Frey captors' hands and talked him into surrendering the castle in exchange for his people's lives. Edmure gave up Riverrun, though he let his uncle slip away down the river, and Emmon Frey settled in as its new lord, now a vassal of Harrenhal.