Winterfell

**Winterfell** is the ancestral castle of House Stark and the capital of the North. It is located at the centre of the North along the Kingsroad and at the eastern edge of the Wolfswood. Nearby are also the western branches of the White Knife, the Northern Mountains, and the Long Lake.

## Layout

Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres and protected by two massive walls. There is a village outside, the winter town. Winterfell has been built around an ancient godswood and over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters.

Inside the walls, the complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces. Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner castle, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall. A small sept was built in the Inner Castle for Lady Catelyn Tully, a southron, by her husband, Lord Eddard Stark.

The glass garden is a greenhouse heated by the hot springs, which turn it into a place of moist warmth. It is used to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers. In the crypt of Winterfell, located near the First Keep, members of House Stark are buried. The underground crypts are long and narrow, with pillars moving two by two along its length. Between pillars stand the sepulchers of the Starks of Winterfell, the likenesses of the dead seated on thrones, with iron swords set before them, and snarling direwolves at their feet. The crypts are located deep under the earth, cavernous and bigger than the complex above ground.

The great main gates have a gatehouse made of two huge crenelated bulwarks which flank the arched gate and a drawbridge that opens into the market square of the winter town.There is a narrow tunnel inside of the inner wall stretching halfway around the castle, allowing travel from the south gate all the way to the north gate without interruption.

* The Hunter's Gate is a gate located close to the kennels and the kitchens. It opens directly onto open fields and the wolfswood, so people can come and go without having to cross through the winter town. It is favored by hunting parties.

* The East Gate or Kingsroad Gate leads to the kingsroad.

* The Battlements Gate is a small arched postern in the inner wall. It crosses the moat between the walls but does not have a passageway through the outer wall.

## History

### Older History

Winterfell was built for the Kings of Winter before the Andal Invasion, although the First Keep, the oldest surviving part, due to its form, must have been built after the arrival of the Andals. Before the Andal Invasion, Winterfell was burnt down several times by Red Kings of the Dreadfort in the wars between the two rival Kingdoms, before the North was united under the rule of House Stark.

### Targaryen Dynasty

Winterfell came under the rule of the Iron Throne, when King Torrhen Stark knelt to Aegon I Targaryen. The castle was visited by members of the royal family at several occasions, including Jaehaerys I Targaryen and his wife Alysanne in 58 AC, during the rule of Lord Alaric Stark.

During the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon visited Winterfell and gained Cregan Stark for the cause of Rhaenyra Targaryen and the blacks. At the end of the war, Cregan Stark married Alysanne Blackwood in the godswood of Winterfell.

### Baratheon Dynasty

King Robert I Baratheon visited Winterfell in 298 AC, when he appointed Eddard Stark as his Hand of the King. In the War of the Five Kings that followed Robert I's death, Winterfell was captured by Ironborn led by Theon Greyjoy, who had been a ward at the castle for most of his youth. Soon after, it was captured again by forces of House Bolton after fighting an army led by Rodrik Cassel, the castellan appointed by House Stark.

Stannis Baratheon died at Winterfell in 300 AC, trying to oust the Boltons again. Instead, an army of Northerners and Valemen, coordinated by the later King Petyr Baelish, successfully liberated Winterfell and installed Lord Rickon Stark as its ruler under the regency of Sansa Stark.

Soon after, the Wall in the north of Westeros was broken and the Others with their undead army invaded, beginning a new Long Night and marching onto Winterfell, where they were eventually defeated by armies from across the Realm, as well as assistance by Daenerys Targaryen on her dragon.

### Baelish Dynasty

When Petyr I Baelish was chosen as the new King of Westeros, his wife Sansa Stark moved to King's Landing with him, and thus she was replaced as her brother's regent by a council formed by Wyman Manderly, Barbrey Dustin, and Robett Glover, the former of which was the grandfather of Wylla Manderly, to whom Lord Rickon Stark was betrothed and later wed.