House Cassel/Theories

Theories may be removed if ...

Stated as questions or possibilities.
More appropriate for another article.
Illogical or previously disproven.
Proven by canon source, and moved to main page.
Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments.
Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead).

This does not include responses that are also standalone theories.
Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response.

The origins of House Cassel are not explained in any published book or semi-canon source. However, some fans have speculated the Cassels might be related to the Starks of Winterfell, more particularly to Lonnel Snow.

Supporting evidence

The following pieces of evidence are frequently used in favor of this theory:

According to a semi-canon source, the coat of arms of House Cassel depicts ten white wolf heads on grey with a black border.^[1] Those arms are similar to those of House Stark but with a reversed coloring,^[2] particularly Robb Stark's personal sigil.^[3]^[4] Based on the reversed coloring, it is possible that the founder of House Cassel was a bastard of House Stark.
- Recognized bastards who take arms (noble born, knighted, etc.) often take the coat of arms of their fathers with the colors reversed.^[5]
- Younger sons are known to replicate the device of their House's coat of arms to show their status as a younger child. Examples include Garlan and Loras Tyrell, who use two and three golden roses on a green field respectively, as a variant on the coat of arms of House Tyrell (a golden rose on a green field), and Maekar I Targaryen (who quartered the red Targaryen dragon on a black field).
  - Lonnel Snow, or possibly a trueborn son of his, meets those two conditions, as Lonnel was the acknowledged bastard son of Lord Brandon Stark,^[6] who was in turn the tenth child of Lord Cregan Stark,^[6] explaining the usage of ten wolf heads in reversed coloring.

Counterpoints

While younger sons are known to replicate the device of their House's coat of arms, there is no evidence that daughters do this too and five of Cregan's children where daughters. As such Lord Brandon Stark as a fifth son would more likely have used five wolfs heads and not ten, which would then result in Lonnel using five wolfsheads as well.