White Harbor

Long before the city existed, the First Men had already raised a fort on Seal Rock, at the harbor's mouth. Centuries later King Jon Stark drove off the pirates who used those waters as a base and had the Wolf's Den built where the White Knife meets the sea.

House Manderly wasn't born in the North. Lord Lorimar Peake drove them from their lands on the Mander, with the blessing of Reach king Perceon III Gardener, and the Starks took them in: the Wolf's Den and the land around it, in exchange for an oath of fealty. White Harbor grew up around that stronghold. In time the Manderlys moved to New Castle and left the Wolf's Den for another purpose — today it's a prison.

During the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon traveled through the North — White Harbor, then Winterfell — seeking support for his mother's claim. Lord Desmond Manderly didn't go himself: he sent his sons Medrick and Torrhen south at the head of the city's forces.

When Rhaenyra Targaryen had to flee King's Landing, the Manderlys offered her shelter in White Harbor. She refused.

Catelyn Stark had earlier hired a ship, the Storm Dancer, to carry her to King's Landing with Ser Rodrik Cassel. Returning from the Vale of Arryn, with her uncle Brynden Tully now at her side, she passed through White Harbor. There Ser Wylis Manderly joined her with fifteen hundred men, bound for Moat Cailin to find Robb.

Lord Wyman Manderly stayed behind, busy strengthening the city's defenses.

Stannis Baratheon sent Ser Davos Seaworth to the ports of the Narrow Sea, White Harbor among them, spreading word that Joffrey Baratheon had no right to the throne.

In the city, Lord Wyman replaced the customs officers — the old ones had been collecting for the Iron Throne instead of Robb — and offered to mint coin for the King in the North and build him a war fleet.

When ironborn raiders threatened Torrhen's Square, Maester Luwin sent ravens asking for troops from White Harbor and the Wolfswood. Later, with Winterfell already under attack, he managed to send one more warning. Lord Wyman answered with a dozen barges loaded with knights, warhorses and siege engines, sailing up the White Knife. Ramsay Bolton's men betrayed and defeated them before they arrived.

Maester Aemon, already at Castle Black, sent a raven asking White Harbor for help against the wildling assault on the Wall.

Later, in King's Landing, word reached Queen Cersei that Ser Davos Seaworth had been executed in White Harbor: his head and his mutilated hand were said to already hang from the port's walls.

Davos Seaworth arrived in White Harbor to speak for Stannis, but the Freys got there first: Rhaegar Frey, Ser Jared Frey and Symond Frey had already delivered the bones of Wendel Manderly, one of Lord Wyman's sons killed at the Red Wedding.

In the Merman's Court, in front of the Freys, Lord Manderly had Davos seized as a traitor. They took him to the Wolf's Den, but the man they beheaded and set on the walls — his head boiled in tar, one hand maimed to look like his — wasn't him. It was another prisoner.

With the false report already on its way to the capital and his heir, Ser Wylis, back home, Manderly sent Robett Glover to bring Davos out of his cell through a secret passage to New Castle. There he set a condition for recognizing Stannis as king: that Davos recover Rickon Stark, said to be hiding on Skagos according to Wex Pyke's account, together with his direwolf — the proof that would be needed if the Dreadfort ever dared deny who the boy was.