100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Rowan Kaiser

Author:Rowan Kaiser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2017-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

37. The Vale

The Vale, home of House Arryn, was one of the least important regions in Game of Thrones in its first five seasons. Their leaders remained assiduously neutral, and the region itself was primarily a stopping point for characters on larger journeys—Cat Stark and Tyrion Lannister in Season 1, and Sansa Stark in Season 4. But in the sixth season, the Knights of the Vale join with Jon and Sansa’s northern army, and the quietest of the Seven Kingdoms has finally entered the wars.

The Vale is the northeastern part of the southern half of Westeros, and is one of the continent’s most isolated regions. It is located in the Mountains of the Moon, and as such is filled with rocky hills and valleys. As such, it’s one of the least populated of the Seven Kingdoms. Its power comes from its defensive locations, not huge armies or wealth. The Vale is, however, known for the quality of its knights, if not the size of its armies—their addition to Jon Snow’s armies is a major alliance.

Its isolated nature means that, although it is technically bordered by the Crownlands to the south and the Riverlands to the west, the Vale is still easily shut off from them. The chief road in and out of the Vale is the High Road, which goes from east to west and meets the Kingsroad at the Inn at the Crossroads in the Riverlands. This road has provided almost all of the action to take place in the Vale itself: Cat and Tyrion are attacked by the mountain clans here; Brienne runs into Arya and the Hound; and Sansa and Littlefinger journey through this road on their way to meet the Boltons.

The mountain clans are a notable part of Vale culture in Game of Thrones: these supposed savages are descendants of the First Men who have remained free in the Mountains of the Moon for centuries. Their heritage, violence, and egalitarianism makes them somewhat related to the Wildlings beyond the Wall. Tyrion Lannister recruits some of their clans to aid the Lannisters and himself personally in the first season, but, along with jokes about feeding manhood to goats, they fade into the background as the series progresses. (They play a slightly larger part in the novels, and are specifically paid off by Tywin to leave and lower his son’s influence, but the trajectory is basically the same.)

The mountain clans being descendants of the First Men is one of the interesting historical quirks of the Vale. In Westerosi history, it is most famous for being the landing point for the Andals in their successful invasion. (The Andals are perhaps best thought of as the Saxons to the First Men’s Britons, a successful invasion that eventually merged with the conquered subjects.) House Royce led the fight against the Andal invasion, but House Arryn eventually won, building the impregnable mountain stronghold known as the Eyrie.

After this, the Vale was never conquered, with the Arryns only surrendering to the Targaryens when they landed a dragon in their citadel, the Eyrie.

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