Brynden Rivers

From A Wiki of Ice and Fire

Character name Brynden Rivers

Alias:	Bloodraven
Title:	Hand of the King, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch
Allegiance:	House Targaryen
Place of birth:	Riverlands
Date of birth:	175 AL [1]
Book(s):	The Hedge Knight The Sworn Sword The Mystery Knight
Coat of Arms:	a white dragon with red eyes breathing red flame on a black field

Lord Brynden Rivers, called "Bloodraven", was a legitimized Great Bastard of Aegon IV and Mylessa Blackwood, his sixth mistress. His personal arms were a white dragon with red eyes breathing red flame on a black field. During his life he was a Targaryen loyalist during the Blackfyre Rebellion, the Hand of Aerys I, and Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.^[2] Shiera Seastar, another bastard of Aegon IV, was his mistress.^[3]

Contents 1 Appearance 2 History 3 The Mystery Knight 4 References and Notes

Appearance

An albino, Brynden had milk white skin, long white hair, and red eyes. He had a red birthmark that extended from his throat up to his right cheek. Some thought that it resembled a bird.^[4] Brynden was not as tall or muscular as his half-brothers. He typically wore the colors of "blood and smoke", with smoke being a dark grey that was mottled and streaked with black. Because his skin was sensitive to light, he usually went about cloaked and hooded. He lost an eye during the Blackfyre Rebellion and rarely covered the empty socket with a patch. He wore his white hair straight and to his shoulders, with the front brushed forward to cover his missing eye.^[5]

History

A strong warrior, Brynden carried the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister, but he preferred his weirwood longbow and was an expert archer. During the Blackfyre Rebellion, Brynden remained loyal to Daeron II and commanded a group of longbowmen called the Raven's Teeth. At the Battle of the Redgrass Field he lost an eye fighting his half-brother, Aegor Rivers. His Raven's Teeth ultimately gained the Weeping Ridge, and rained down arrows on Daemon's position from 300 yards away.^[6] Daemon and his twin sons were killed. For this, people would name him a kinslayer.

After the rebellion, he became Hand of the King to Aerys I. As "Lord Bloodraven" he was rumored to be a sinister sorcerer, effectively ruling the kingdom “with spies and spells”. A song about Bloodraven, "A Thousand Eyes, and One", was still sung almost a century later.^[7] The events of The Sworn Sword take place during his reign as Hand, though he does not personally take part in the story. Bloodraven was imprisoned and sent to the Wall around 233 AL by King Aegon V, eventually rising to Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.^[8]

The Mystery Knight

Aware of the plot to put Daemon II Blackfyre forward as the legitimate king of the Seven Kingdoms, Lord Bloodraven marched on Whitewalls where he arrested Daemon after refusing single combat and contained the Second Blackfyre Rebellion.^[9]

References and Notes

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at House Targaryen. The list of authors can be seen in the page history of House Targaryen. As with the A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Great Bastards

Daemon Blackfyre | Aegor Rivers | Brynden Rivers | Shiera Seastar