House Arryn

House Arryn is one of the oldest and noblest Westerosi families, ruling the Vale from the impregnable Eyrie. Proud and honorable, they maintain a tradition of justice and chivalry, emphasizing purity of blood and moral integrity. Their mountainous homeland keeps them isolated and difficult to challenge, giving them strategic strength and political stability.

Even so, internal vulnerabilities and personal tragedies often shape their fate. The Eyrie's strength is also its cage: in winter the mountain passes close, and the lords of the Vale grow restless behind them.

During the Dance of the Dragons the Vale sat quietly under Lady Jane Arryn, who kept her bannermen at home and let the realm bleed without her — a neutrality that preserved the Vale but earned the Arryns no friends. In later ages they would answer more readily: Jon Arryn's fostering of the Stark and Baratheon boys helped ignite Robert's Rebellion, and his death set the whole Song of Ice and Fire in motion.